Sharing Student Projects

Science literacy plays an important role in the learning of science and is essential for students to understand and apply their science knowledge. As a result of the worldwide Covid pandemic students at my school missed many classroom hours, therefore had a reduced knowledge of the science curriculum. Furthermore, due to missed lessons in other subject areas, such as English, the average reading age of students had declined, with an average student reading three years younger than would be expected. These two issues created a perfect storm in relation to GCSE exam performance. Students did not have the high level of comprehension, nor the science literacy to fully answer and apply their knowledge. An intervention for Year 10 students (aged 14-15 years) was implemented, with the overall aim being to increase science literacy, understanding and exam performance. Students were given a questionnaire and interviewed in a group setting to gain their insight on the issues raised and feedback in relation to the intervention strategies and techniques. Written work from the students was reviewed after the intervention to ascertain if their application of knowledge had improved. The results from this research supported the outlined aims. Students found the intervention strategies useful and were seen using them when answering exam questions. Over half of all students were awarded full marks on all questions which would gain a maximum of 4 and 6 marks respectively. One question awarded 77% of students with full marks. These results are positive in relation to the intervention, but difficult to generalise to other students. The study was only implemented on a small number of high and middle ability Year 10 students within a Physics classroom over a short period of time (6 weeks), therefore further research needs to be conducted to test the repeatability and the reproducibility.

The results from this intervention have had a positive impact on the chosen class, further research needs to be carried out on lower ability students to allow a comparison with the higher ability students from this research. As a practitioner I have found this research extremely beneficial. The intervention was easy to implement into lessons and has had a positive effect on the work and outcomes of the students. I am always striving to improve my practice and this experience has enabled me to consider different approaches which have academic support. The results will be disseminated to senior leaders and teachers during training to develop school wide interventions.