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Knowing and Learning about Science in Primary School ‘Communities of Science Practice’: The Views of Participating Scientists in the MyScience Initiative

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Abstract

MyScience is a primary science education initiative in which being in a community of practice is integral to the learning process. One component of this initiative involves professional scientists interacting with primary school communities which are navigating their way towards sustainable ‘communities of practice’ around the ‘domain’ of ‘investigating scientifically’. This paper describes the ongoing journey to date of eleven scientists (six astronomers and five engineers) who actively participated in MyScience over an extended period. Their views of interactions with teachers and students were analysed using attributes associated with both ‘communities of practice’ and the ‘nature of science’. Findings reveal new understandings about the evolving characteristics associated with the development of such school-community collaborations as well as affordances and barriers that may influence their further growth. The influence of these scientists’ own ‘community of science practices’ may account for some of the findings. Implications for science teaching and learning in primary school community of practice settings are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Here (and in some other places) key words from the interview extracts have been inserted in parentheses to indicate the evidence for the interpretation. In most of the later interpretations the reader will be able to discern from the preceding discussion how they were derived.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Australian Catholic University, Locked Bag 2002, Strathfield, NSW, Australia, 2135

    Anne Forbes

  2. Centre for Children and Young People, School of Education, Southern Cross University, PO Box 157, Lismore, NSW, 2480, Australia

    Keith Skamp

Authors
  1. Anne Forbes
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  2. Keith Skamp
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Correspondence to Keith Skamp.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Table 3 Nature of science characteristics from the work of Murcia and Schibeci (1999), Liu and Lederman (2007), and Girod and Twyman (2009), with a fourth ‘composite’ column derived from all three papers. (Girod and Twyman’s attributes were adapted to suit Grade 2 children.)
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Appendix 2

Table 4 The interview questions and the purpose for asking them
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Forbes, A., Skamp, K. Knowing and Learning about Science in Primary School ‘Communities of Science Practice’: The Views of Participating Scientists in the MyScience Initiative. Res Sci Educ 43, 1005–1028 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-012-9295-0

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