What pedagogical strategies support students from a refugee background connecting to the natural world? What would these strategies look like for fifteen students participating in a language intensive New Arrivals Program (NAP)? These questions were the focus of a small collaborative project set up to investigate the impact of pedagogical…

Language is critical in the mediation of scientific reasoning, higher-order thinking and the development of scientific literacy. This study investigated how an exemplary primary science teacher scaffolds and supports students' reasoning during a Year 4 materials unit. Lessons captured on video, teacher and student interviews and micro-ethnographic…

A Victorian government initiative called "The Primary Science Specialists Professional Learning Program" is designed to tackle students' falling interest in science by investing in the building of teacher capacity. The aims of the initiative are: to improve the science knowledge base of all teachers and therefore increase teachers'…

This research described in this paper firstly explored teachers' ideas about scientific literacy using an interview technique. Secondly, using a longitudinal case study approach, it examined how, following their participation in a professional development program, primary teachers presented opportunities during their science lessons for their…