Professor Jenny Graves FAAForeign Secretary

Australian Academy of Science

PrimaryConnections – an update

My concerns ….

• Science is not attracting the best and brightest• My students can’t observe and interpret for themselves• Australian society is scientifically semi-literate• Science is poorly supported

Shared by

Science Education programs

of the Australian Academy of Science

Prof Kurt Lambeck (President AAS)

High quality science education to• help children make sense of

the world • build science literate society that can

- make informed decisions- support science

• produce more and better scientists

Previous Academy initiatives

Breakthrough …

PrimaryConnections

linking science with literacy

CurriculumTeacher training and support

The 5Es model for teaching and learning

Engage Explore

Explain EvaluateElaborate

Teaching guides and Curriculum units

PrimaryConnections Indigenous Perspective

Professional learning facilitators• 350 trained at AAS• states across Australia

PrimaryConnections professional learning

Curriculum leaders• 2 day workshops• teacher leaders in schools• support implementation

Building confidence and competence

KnowledgeConfidenceTools and resources

Evaluating PrimaryConnections

Successful implementation in trial schools“Trial schools show a progressively increased commitment to PrimaryConnections and increasing amounts of science being taught, and taught using PrimaryConnections units.”

Teacher leaders are happy•95% of professional learning facilitators rated the professional learning resources as Excellent or Good

• 81% of curriculum leaders report that they are ‘Very well prepared’ or ‘Well prepared’ for the role of a curriculum leader, and reported confidence jumped 3.07 to 4.08 out of 5.

Evaluation of PrimaryConnections

Research results – teachers in schools

Hundreds of teachers have attended workshops conducted by professional learning facilitators in schools.They report a consistently high level of satisfaction. On a scale of 1-4:

• workshop activities stimulated my learning 3.45 • workshop content was relevant to my school 3.48• my overall evaluation of the workshop 3.54

There is much excitement and enthusiasm around the school this term … it is all a buzz with science.

I now feel I can actually teach science in a quality way … and enjoy doing it.

I had children walking out saying that science was fun, interesting and even their ‘favourite subject’.

It gave me renewed skills as a teacher.

Thanks to your resources I was able to help deliver science to primary age students in an engaging and meaningful way. 

This has been the most invigorating and rewarding project I have been involved in.

What teachers are saying about PrimaryConnections

Evaluation of PrimaryConnections

1467 students in 26 government schools

Literacies of science

Mean of literacies of science scoresfor sub-groups of year 5-7 students

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

All** ATSI** LBOTE** Males** Females**

Sub-group

Mea

n sc

ore

/25

PrimaryConnections

Comparison

Mean of processes of science scoresfor sub-groups of year 5-7 students

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

All** ATSI** LBOTE Males** Females

Sub-groupM

ean

sco

re /

24

Primary Connections

Comparison

Processes of science

PrimaryConnections is catching on…

Distribution of curriculum units

100,000

In 40% schools

PrimaryConnections supported by the Australian Government

Deputy Prime Minister and Federal Minister for Education, The Hon Julia Gillard, launches Schoolyard safari, 24 April 2008

Support for Stage 4; $4.5M in June 2008 to total $10.3M

Internationalising PrimaryConnections

2 Malaysian, 1 Thai educators

attended 2 day Curriculum

Leader Program with Australian

teachers in Sydney and Melbourne.

IAP announced $50,000 seed funding

for 3-day PC workshop

in Singapore in 2010.

FASAS and AASA are named as partners.

Beyond PrimaryConnections……

Secondary school science

PrimaryConnections is happening now in schools throughout Australiawww.science.org.au/primaryconnections

Continued Asian development a joint Australian/FASAS project????

PrimaryConnections

Where to now?

Why not adapt the program for schools throughout Asia?• Programs can be customised (c.f. Indigenous perspective)• Interest (e.g.international participants at 2008 Sydney workshop)• FASAS and AASA support through IAP for 2010 Singapore workshop