Abstract:
Primary school science teaching has always had as its beating heart the interaction of face-to-face interaction of teacher and students around embodied experience with physical materials and phenomenon. The move of our students and teachers to studying online has disrupted traditional techniques and patterns of instruction. In this presentation we describe a series of experiments in reimagining a course in primary science and technology education using the Activity Based Instructional Design (ABID) model based on Engeström’s Cultural Historical & Activity Theory (CHAT). ABID provides a naturally modular, student centered, and theory informed template which reconceptualises the course as a series of interconnected and interrelated activities that provides the learner the set of psychological tools needed to achieve the learning objectives of the course. In this Vygotskian framework two crucial ideas emerge: it is the learning activity that is the unit of analysis; and the learning outcome of each activity provides the psychological tools used by a learner in subsequent activities. In this presentation we will use vignettes from our research to challenge the primary science education community to radically reimagine how we prepare primary teachers to effectively induct students, at the critical time for their engagement and understanding, into science.