Reimagining Primary Science Education at Griffith University

Abstract

Largely as a result of unfortunate or inadequate experiences with science during their compulsory school years many students enter the first of two core primary science education courses at Mt Gravatt and Logan Campuses of Griffith University with trepidation. Attempts to develop in these students a positive attitude towards science and the teaching of science have not been helped by inadequate university funding, which has forced all universities into mass teaching and other approaches that are "efficient" in terms of staff student ratios. Working within these attitudinal and funding constraints, Griffith University educators in the two courses have experimented with a range of different teaching, learning and assessment methods. In close consultation with students they have refined those ideas that are rated as effective and discarded those that are rated as ineffective, resulting in two courses that are now highly rated by students and regarded as beneficial. This paper discusses a range of different methodologies that have been employed to help overcome negative attitudes and the isolating and impersonal influences of large group instruction. Techniques discussed include teaching styles in mass lectures, engaging students during mass lectures, small group learning projects, effective assessment, student support, flexible learning and delivery ideas, and the primacy of reflective student feedback to achieving student satisfaction.