Priorities in Practice : Essentials of Science, Grades 7-12 : Effective Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment

I have been updating the blog as much as I can for the past few days. I know when school starts in the next few days, I will be busy preparing the P6 pupils for PSLE science, planning Science lessons for the the P5s, studying, doing housework....

I recently read , "Priorities in Practice : Essentials of Science, Grades 7-12 : Effective Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment",  an E book from NIE library. Chapter 5, Assessment For Learning", caught my attention.

The book recommends that every pupil to be like scientist, keeps a Science notebook to raise questions, document procedures, collect data and write conclusion. Perusing the professional scientist's notebook conveys an especially important fact to teachers: Science is a human activity done by real people, not fill in the blank erercises that demand one right answer. " The students should learn to use the notebooks the way a  Sciencetist: to clarify thinking, to ask questions, , to find holes in their thinking, to justify their thought processes," says Sparkman.
The book also recommends to collect the notebook, about 5 per week, to find out what pupils know and what they need to know. This make me think that if we are do this, we are doing authentic assessments

I like the following tips on using the science notebook:

The book also suggests to have peer assessment by doing a round robin. Pupils are to look for the best aspect of another person's notebook and explain why. This process helps pupils to discern what needs improving in their own notebooks and get ideas for improvements.

All these are good ideas. Once I am ready, I want to implement them in my own class. Hopefully, I will get teachers who are interested to join me.


Right now, I also get my 2 P5 classes to owe a notebook but they use it to summarise what they have learnt using different graphic organisers like tables, concept maps, mind map, cause and effect flow chart etc. I got the idea and the pedaegogy from " Why don't children like school?" by Daniel T Willingham, a cognitive Scientist. Information can last longer in pupils' memeory when they synthesis knowledge, when they summarise what they have learnt. Pupils do not really learn by just underlining the key points in the textbook. We always have this perception that teachers who give a lot of notes to pupils are excellent teachers. More importantly, teachers must ask scaffolding questions to get pupils to construct new knowledge, teach them how to summarise.


“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime”—Author unknown