Teaching Secondary Scientific Enquiry: (ASE/John Murray Science Practice)

This book is the fourth in the "ASE/John Murray Science Practice" series, a companion volume to "Teaching Secondary Physics", "Teaching Secondary Chemistry" and "Teaching Secondary Biology". Whilst the three previous volumes looked at ways of teaching the subject content of science courses in secondary schools, this book looks at a complementary aspect of science: scientific enquiry. Scientific enquiry considers two important, related questions: how can our pupils carry out their own investigations in a scientific way? And how does scientific enquiry develop new ideas, supported by empirical evidence? The first part of the book looks at scientific investigation, which is most concerned with developing pupils' understanding of the nature of scientific evidence (their "ideas about evidence"), and how this can guide them through investigative work. The second part of the book looks at ideas and evidence, with a greater emphasis on how pupils can approach scientific ideas from beyond the school laboratory. It is important that students should have a clearer grasp of the nature of science and how scientists work. They need to be able to look at scientific evidence and assess for themselves how strongly it supports the ideas that are being developed from it. They can learn how to do this by examining current and past controversies involving science, and by developing their won skills of enquiry. This book aims to help teachers, teach these skills.

Table of Contents:
Investigations - introduction, Valerie Wood-Robinson; investigations - collecting and using evidence, Richard Gott, Ros Roberts; investigations - planning from questions, Nigel Heslop, Valerie Wood-Robinson; investigations - considering evidence, Linda Ellis, Mike Evans; investigations - evaluating evidence, Rod Watson, Valerie Wood-Robinson; ideas and evidence - introduction, David Sang; ideas and evidence - tackling science-related issues, Mary Ratcliffe; ideas and evidence - learning from history, Peter Ellis; ideas and evidence - controversial issues, Tony Sherbourne; teaching citizenship through science, Peter Campbell.

Review :
This book continues the strong focus on the practicalities of teaching and learning that the first three in the series introduced. The book has much to recommend it; it is clearly written, well structured and has a strong practical focus. Experienced teachers will find much of practical use in part 2 and much to challenge popular approaches to investigations in part 1. It is an essential addition to prep room libraries. -- School Science Review 20030601 All in all, this is an excellent book. The editors have assembled a first rate group of contributors and I found much of value in every chapter. While not confined to biology, there are quite a number of biology examples and I felt these were successful in neither being trivial nor too demanding for secondary students. The chapters are very well written and cohere successfully. This book is undoubtedly one that should be in every secondary school, UK and overseas. -- Journal of Biological Education 20030801 A good background text to cover all aspects of Investigation with many aspects of the different approaches that could be adapted. -- Mr J Holland 20030207 This teacher's book has thoughtfully laid out chapters on key areas, with boxes containing practical ideas and strategies. These are particularly adept at illustrating the main points of the chapter. The book covers all the important aspects of investigations and is a companion to the excellent books on teaching biology, chemistry and physics. Invaluable for all science teachers. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Buy this book now! -- TES Teacher 20030501