The science curriculum

A topic in 'Teaching science'

What is curriculum?

Curriculum can be understood in terms of what it is intended to learn or teach. A formal curriculum sets out what students on a particular programme or course should study. (A 'hidden' curriculum refers to what may be implicitly being communicated despite not being formalised as curriculum.)

Curricular aims

The aims of a curriculum relate to the purposes of education. In 'MasterClass in Science Education' I suggested we educate young people for a range of reasons:

  • the pipeline argument: the economic driver
  • the choice argument: the aspirational driver
  • the liberal argument: the cultural driver or the developmental driver
  • the citizenship argument: the democratic driver (Taber, 2019a: p.26)
 

Read about the purposes of the curriculum

A key argument here is although learning about some science is important, it is at least as important to understand about the nature of science – the processes by which science works, the nature of knowledge and theory, the role of argumentation, and so forth.

Read about Teaching the nature of science

Choosing what should be taught

In developing  science curriculum there is vastly more potential material that could be included than would fit in any coherent and manageable programme of study.

"In constructing a curriculum, there are issues of selection and simplification. There is a need to decide what is included, and the level of treatment to be covered. Selection may be understood at two levels – deciding what falls under the remit of the subject of the course being taught, and then deciding what specific material should be included" (Taber, 2019b: 200).

There may be a temptation to squeeze as much science into a school science curriculum as possible. Science teachers often feel that all the topics they teach are interesting and important (and of course they are) but too many topics each taught over a short sequence of lessons often lead to students finding science learning an incoherent and confusing experience. Whilst the highest achieving students may cope, they would have a more satisfactory experience being asked to delve into somewhat fewer topics, but being allowed to engage in more depth.

Read about meeting the needs of gifted learners in science

Organising science in the curiculum

In school curriculum science may be presented as a single subject just called 'science' or 'general science' or 'integrated science' or as 'coordinated' or 'separate sciences'. There are no absolute definitions to these terms, but integrated science is likely to be taught as topics that draw form across different science disciplines where as co-ordinated science is more likely to have distinct strands (e.g., chemistry, physics, etc.) but taught with some attempt to sequence the course to highlight and develop links.

There are various arguments about the best way to organise science in the curriculum, and there are good reasons to make different choices for different groups of students (for example, with increasing age).

Science may be seen as part of STEM: science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and in some contexts this may be seen as a school subject, and in others as a curriculum area within which several related areas are identified – perhaps with some coordination. There are good arguments both for, and against, subsuming science within a wider 'STEM' curriculum subject.

Read about STEM Education

Progression in the science curriculum

Although many science educators are likely to think that science should be a core part of the school curriculum throughout compulsory education, the most suitable kind of science education (in terms of emphasis, organisation) may vary for different student groups – especially in terms of age.Science education suitable for those just starting school will likely be quite different from what is appropriate for older learners – "providing opportunities for such activities as close observation, exploring, playing with ideas, and inventing representations" (Taber, 2019c).

One model of how the emphasis of science education might shift with the development of learner (after Taber & Vong, 2000, Figure 2)

'Representing' science in the curriculum

The reference above to 'simplification' in important. If we decide to teach electromagnetic induction or neutralisation reactions or cell division or whatever topic, a search of the scientific literature would find that there is a vast amount of material, and moreover that a specialist working in that area would likely have not only have an extensive,  technical knowledge, but also a subtle and nuanced knowledge – a level of understanding unlikely to be accessible to any novice.

"In general, our teaching of any concept will require a simplification of the canonical … concept. … the content of any … concept will be so extensive and nuanced that we would have to be selective just on the grounds that there would never be time to teach every detail. Usually, we will not only have to be selective about matters of the amount of detail (so we judge that it is not essential to mention every metallic element in teaching the {metals} concept, even if that is part of the full content of the canonical scientific concept), but in terms of sophistication and complexity" (Taber, 2019b: 215).

So, curriculum specifications often offer simplified versions of scientific accounts. That is, the science is not presented as is, but is represented as 'curricular models' of the science. Ideally these are at 'optimum levels of sophistication' making them accessible to learners at a particular age/stage but suitable for progression to more sophisticated account.

Read about 'Curricular models' of science

Read about seeking the optimum level of sophistication as a key idea for teaching science 

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