Reading And Writing Science: A Whole-School Approach

Abstract

This chapter focuses on a whole-school approach to the teaching of Science literacies in a primary school, in response to the increasing challenges and complexities of Science education, and to address low confidence levels among primary teachers in their teaching of Science. Three teacher researchers collaborated with university researchers to develop a suite of projects to improve Science literacies, aimed at informing whole-school policies and pedagogies. Two of the teacher researchers worked with aspects of Science curriculum literacy: one focused on the use of technical vocabulary in Science writing, the other on the genres of Science. Both were concerned with the preparedness of students to engage with the literacy demands of Science as they transition to the secondary years. The third teacher researcher investigated the teachers' wellbeing and self-confidence as teachers of Science. The inquiries outlined in this chapter link closely with the Australian Curriculum: Science and with literacy understood as a General capability, expressed in the particular literacy requirements of Science teaching. The projects developed by the three teacher researchers and implications of the work for considering whole-school approaches to collaborative research in curriculum-specific literacies, linked to teacher wellbeing issues, are reported here by one of the university researchers.