On Saturday (11 May), I spoke at ResearchED Aberdeen. My presentation had the bold title of Science: What should we teach and how should we teach it? My main argument was that (as many have rightly said) we need to reverse the downgrading of knowledge with the CfE Science curriculum, and we should also promote explicit instruction as an effective method for novices to learn science.

A good place to start reading about the advantages of using explicit instruction in science education can be found in the extended conversation played out over these three papers:

Zhang, L., Kirschner, P.A., Cobern, W.W. et al. (2022) There is an Evidence Crisis in Science Educational Policy. Educ Psychol Rev 34, 1157–1176.

de Jong, T., Lazonder, A. W., Chinn, C. A., Fischer, F., Gobert, J., Hmelo-Silver, C. E., … & Zacharia, Z. C. (2023). Let’s talk evidence–The case for combining inquiry-based and direct instruction. Educational Research Review, 100536.

Sweller, J., Zhang, L., Ashman, G., Cobern, W., & Kirschner, P. A. (2024) Response to De Jong et al.’s (2023) paper “Let’s talk evidence – The case for combining inquiry-based and direct instruction”, Educational Research Review, 42, 100584

My slides can be found here: