ASE 2025 Annual Conference

In an era of diminishing teacher autonomy (OECD 2016; Worth and Van den Brande 2020), many teachers find they are unable to enact change in their practice. In our presentation, we will model some professional learning experiences that we believe can empower teachers to refine their practice.

Our session has two aims. There is a growing body of professional resources that seeks to support children to think scientifically. Firstly, we will model how to introduce a professional resource through an analysis of children's work as illustrations of aspects of Dr. Murphy's Thinking Scientifically Matrix. This matrix articulates a progression in children's thinking in primary science.
Secondly, building on Dr. Serret’s research expertise in enabling pedagogical transformation, we will share some effective approaches that help to communicate evidence-informed pedagogy across a community of practitioners.

Through this, our presentation considers how to introduce pedagogical initiatives (e.g. A Thinking Scientifically Matrix) that allows teachers to integrate this within their existing practice but also encourages them to make small, significant shifts in how they assess, teach and plan in primary science.

In this session you will:
•Have the opportunity to engage in first-hand experiences of applying a pedagogical tool (thinking scientifically matrix) to children’s work.
•Identify how teachers might adapt their planning and teaching when integrating new pedagogy within their existing practice.
•Think about the potential that different professional learning experiences can offer in enabling teachers to enact change in their practice.