Curriculum change and pedagogy: A sociocultural theory, multiple-case study investigation into the interpretations of the How Science Works curriculum by secondary school science teachers

This study explores the interpretation of a curriculum to promote scientific literacy. It takes a sociocultural approach and uses discourse analysis to critically examine the sociocultural construction of the ‘How Science Works’ (HSW) curriculum and links this to the implementation of the curriculum in a large comprehensive school situated in Cambridgeshire, UK. Drawing on Vygotsky’s (1978) and Lave and Wenger’s (1995) sociocultural theory, this study analyses the themes and issues associated with the development and implementation of the HSW curriculum. It relates these to the discourses emerging from nine cases consisting of four lesson observations, three teacher interviews and two student group-interviews to unravel learning as participation in scientific communities of practice and as the acquisition of cultural tools.

This study found out that contexts chosen for teaching science can convey both context-based type discourse and traditional science discourse. Therefore, there is a need for a thorough analysis of the contexts chosen for context-based pedagogies to match their discourse with curricula aims and the needs of the students. Furthermore, it also emerged that socioculturally authentic contexts foster more meaningful learning, improve attitudes and make a significant contribution to scientific literacy. However, there is a need to bridge the gap between the everyday language that they use and professional science discourses so that students can use the appropriate terminology for assessments. The need to clarify the role of the Nature of Science in science teaching also emerged as a key area that needs addressing in curricula for scientific literacy as the contribution of the Nature of Science to scientific literacy may depend on the approach taken. Lastly, this study found out that practical activities were still dominantly used to ‘prove’ facts and to teach content, conveying an objective view of the epistemology of science. This was seen to limit HSW’s ability to enable scientific literacy. This study therefore provides critical insights into current secondary science education curricula policy and practice in England. It reveals that that while there has been some interest in developing context-based approaches in science education, a thorough analysis of the discourses that they convey is required, against lesson goals and wider curriculum aims of curricula like HSW.

The findings also reveal how a traditional science curriculum perspective can still be accepted as the dominant paradigm, which acts to impede the engagement with curricula for scientific literacy such as How Science Works by some teachers. While this supports previous research, it also provides additional understanding on how this impacts on teachers’ ability to deal with the changing epistemology of science, especially the ability to support students when scientific literacy issues demanding multiple perspectives arise.