‘I have enjoyed teaching science more’: changing the attitudes of primary teachers and pupils towards science

Figures & data

Table 1. Data collection approach and number of participants.

Data collection approach	Number of participants	Cohort
Questionnaire	2	8
Interview	1	9
Focus group	3	9
PSQM submission documentation	8 (2 of these participants completed the questionnaire)	8

Table 2. Data collection approach and question areas relevant to attitudes towards science.

Questionnaire
Before you started working towards the PSQM: QA. Did you enjoy teaching science topics? QB. Did you feel confident to teach science topics? QC. Did the children in your class enjoy science topics? QA-QC included the response options: Yes, always; Yes, sometimes; No, hardly ever; No, never; Don’t know; and: Please comment on whether or not this aspect has changed during the year, and if so how it has changed. Can you give any examples of specific changes that you have noticed: QD. in your own or your teachers’ attitudes and thinking about science topics? QE. in the children’s attitudes and understanding about science topics?
Interview and focus group
QF. Were there any issues/attitudes that you wanted to change? (Following: Why did you choose to do the PSQM in your school?) QG. Do you think your attitudes to science have changed since you have been doing the PSQM in your classroom? If so how? (e.g. enjoyment, confidence, engagement) QH; QK. Have you seen a change in the attitudes of the children? If so, can you give me an example? Context: QH. participant’s own teaching; QK. across the school QJ. Do you think teachers’ attitudes to science have changed since you have been doing the PSQM across the school? If so, how? (e.g. enjoyment, confidence, engagement)

Table 3. An example of data within each theme.

Theme 1: The impact of doing the PSQM on attitudes to science
‘the clear growth in confidence of the staff when leading investigations has directly lead to the growth of enjoyment of the pupils and to higher levels of attainment, especially with higher ability pupils’. (School A)
Theme 2: The impact of doing the PSQM on primary science teaching
‘on our learning walks we are seeing that in the lower year groups that children are starting to be able to plan their own investigations. So hopefully as time goes on we will see children coming through that are capable of planning their own investigations’. (Jessica)
Theme 3: Reasons for doing the PSQM
The PSQM provided: ‘an opportunity to celebrate all the things we were already doing well but it gave us an extra incentive to make science teaching and learning in the school even better. It has been wonderful to see the children so enthused’. (Eddie)
Theme 4: Resources for teaching primary science
‘we bought a full-size skeleton and I went to observe a student’s lesson all about bones and I hoped he might use it. At the end of the lesson he wheeled it out and I thought “Yeah!” and the children all gasped, they were mesmerised by it’. (Riah)