Towards personalising learning in school science : Making this learning more relevant

In this paper, we report on a case study of how three teachers personalised learning in science through supporting a group of Year 8 students to engage in individual inquiry projects. The case study demonstrated how heavily transmissive teaching can be avoided by restructuring classes to optimise student group and individual work and timely teacher coaching opportunities as required. This approach can act as a catalyst to enable/prompt teachers to devise a rich developmental science curriculum that (a) enables tasks to be differentiated so as to address diverse student capabilities and interests, (b) can be team-taught drawing on the particular expertise/ interest of teachers in the team, and (c) enables students to connect science learning with their everyday worlds. Reasoning in science can be made personally meaningful to learners when they experience how and why it enables knowledge to be produced, both for themselves and for the wider community. [Author abstract]