John - Primary school Principal - post #2

John, continuing from the previous post:

He had a bit of a feeling that deploying a teacher with special responsibility for integrating STEM studies might be the way to go. Leave the students in the generalist class teacher structure K-6 with each teacher teaching a class grouped by age and consequently heterogeneous in ability to learn. The integration specialist would advise the teachers on STEM integration projects which could well be across say all the year 4 classes or across grade levels. Flexible learning groups could be the way the way to go. This approach did not cut across applying the mastery principle described above.

As an aside John thought that he would need to extend the mastery principle to coding and touch typing skills as students developed their computer literacy.

He wanted also to apply the mastery principle to Science. However he felt that the learning outcomes could be achieved by the generalist class teacher working with the whole heterogeneous class in the dedicated science room.  He could not afford to employ a science specialist but hoped that from time to time one of the science teachers from the local high school could be co-opted to come and assist.  In addition he wanted to explore embracing freelance teacher opportunities on the internet where an annual subscription would allow access to this avenue of expertise. Formal grades were to be applied but not in the form of Above satisfactory, Satisfactory and Below Satisfactory as in the prescribed syllabus (ANC).  Rather he wanted statements about each student like:

·     ‘has achieved all the outcomes of the prescribed syllabus for the year level and moved beyond these’; 

·     ‘has achieved all the outcomes of the prescribed syllabus for the year level’; 

·     ‘did not quite achieve all the outcomes of the prescribed syllabus for the year level but generally has a solid grasp of what science is all about”; 

·     ‘found science hard going but we are monitoring this as James moves into the next academic year’;

·     displays confidence in observation, the application of critical thinking;

·     understands at a basic level what it means to establish an hypothesis and to use an inductive method to test it; 

·     has a feel for basic ethics as applied to scientific endeavour.  

Above all John wanted parents to be educated in the detail of the science syllabus given the importance of STEM subjects for the jobs of the future. John surmised that the primary science syllabus of the WAANC was contemporary and futuristic with each year level being organised as follows:

Science Understanding

·     Biological Sciences

·     Chemical Sciences

·     Earth and Space Sciences

·     Physical Sciences

Science as Human Endeavour

·     Nature and development of science

·     Use and influence of science (…not in P syllabus)

Science Inquiry Skills

·     Questioning and predicting

·     Planning and conducting

·     Processing and analysing data and information

·     Evaluating (…not in P syllabus)

·     Communicating

John wanted his students to move into secondary (high) school with a sound general grounding in science and above all an enthusiasm for the subject



May the Force be with you.



GD