Better Science 4: Approaches to Teaching and Learning

Approaches to Teaching and Learning was the fourth in a series of 12 booklets published by Heinemann and the Association for Science Education to explore the issues arising from moving towards a broad and balanced science education for all young people. The main purpose of this booklet was to explore questions such as:

*Why use an extended range of approaches?
*How will students benefit from learning through a greater variety of approaches?
*What are the purposes of education and what is the contribution of science education to the whole school curriculum?
*What are the different approaches to teaching and learning which have been tried and tested by teachers?
*How may an approach best be selected to provide for the required learning opportunities?
*How can students' progress in learning be monitored?
*How can teachers' effectiveness in providing enhanced learning opportunities/outcomes be evaluated?

Contents
Introduction
SECTION ONE Context and rationale
*Introduction
*Why use a wide range of learning approaches?
*What does science contribute to the general education of young people?
*How can the purposes of school science be translated into an effective model for classroom teaching?
SECTION TWO Selecting an approach
*Introduction
*How can approaches be selected to implement the interactive curriculum model?
*How can learning approaches best be selected in order to meet specific aims and purposes?
*Which learning outcomes?
*Using the instrument: an example
SECTION THREE The 'ideas bank' of exemplars
*Introduction
*What is meant by 'approaches'?
*Which approach do we refer to?
*The layout of the exemplars
*The exemplars
SECTION FOUR Monitoring students' progress and teachers' effectiveness
*Introduction
*What are the benefits to students?
*Initiating problem solving
*What can be learned from their comments?
*What are the experiences of other teachers using new approaches?
*What methods could be used to collect the evaluation evidence?
*The teacher as ‘action researcher'
SECTION FIVE Ways and means
References