I argue that students want to see relevance in their studies. The National Curriculum in England is a list of concepts that we wish them to understand. However, the concepts need to be embedded into a meaningful context, such as climate change, which may become the overarching reason for teaching science. In this article I remember fondly…

Constructivism is a widely influential perspective in science education research. However, there have been strong criticisms of attempts to adopt constructivism as a principle underpinning official science curriculum policy (for example in New Zealand). Over the past decade recommendations for classroom pedagogy in extensive official guidance…

Current school science curricula attempt to reflect contemporary constructivist-provisionalist related epistemologies as accepted by professional science. It is argued that conversely, the effect of science education is the creation of pupils holding naive-realist epistemological beliefs, largely inductivist-positivist absolutists who chase an…

Survey results contrast teachers' (n=159) knowledge and understanding with the understanding levels expected by England's science National Curriculum. Teacher's understanding with respect to the concepts of force, energy, and changes in materials are discussed. (Contains 29 references.) (MDH)