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Topics and Trends in Current Science Education pp 369–383Cite as

The Impact of a Context-Led Curriculum on Different Students’ Experiences of School Science

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Part of the book series: Contributions from Science Education Research ((CFSE,volume 1))

Abstract

The aim of our research was to understand the classroom experiences of 14–16-year-old students studying science in England where a more context-led curriculum had been introduced into government-funded schools. We were interested in how students following different courses talked about their desires for, and experiences of, school science. This is in a context where most teachers have had little if any involvement in the development of the reform and in most cases limited training in the new curriculum content. Students from 19 schools across England took part in group interviews. We analysed students’ talk about what they want and what they get from school science, with particular emphasis on the newly introduced context-based content. Findings indicate that students taking three separate science qualifications (considered a ‘high-status’ academic route) tend to want to learn more canonical science since this interested them and would be useful for the future. Students taking applied science (a ‘lower-status’ science route) tend to want to learn more ‘real-life’ science since this would be useful in their future lives. The content of ‘real-life’ science was hard for many students to define but was generally not the broadly canonical science they typically experienced in the classroom.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.education.leeds.ac.uk/research/projects/enactment-and-impact-of-science-education-reform-eiser

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Acknowledgements

The work reported here is one outcome of a 3 year study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, grant number RES-179-25-0004. Thanks are extended to the teachers and students who participated in this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Studies in Science and Mathematics Education, School of Education, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Indira Banner & Jim Ryder

Authors
  1. Indira Banner
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  2. Jim Ryder
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Indira Banner .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. EA 4148 S2HEP, University of Lyon 1, ENS-Lyon, University of Lyon, Villeurbanne Cedex, France

    Catherine Bruguière

  2. UMR ICAR, CNRS, UMR ICAR, CNRS, University of Lyon 2, ENS-Lyon, Lyon Cedex 07, France

    Andrée Tiberghien

  3. EA 4148 S2HEP, University of Lyon 1, ENS-Lyon, University of Lyon, Villeurbanne Cedex, France

    Pierre Clément

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Banner, I., Ryder, J. (2014). The Impact of a Context-Led Curriculum on Different Students’ Experiences of School Science. In: Bruguière, C., Tiberghien, A., Clément, P. (eds) Topics and Trends in Current Science Education. Contributions from Science Education Research, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7281-6_23

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