Science should not be enjoyable

[cococake]

Or so says my dd's science teacher tonight!

It was parents evening tonight and my dd's science teacher and form teacher are one and the same.

She is in yr 8. The teacher said all other teachers were very pleased with her, but he wanted to know why her last two science test results were so poor, when she was one of the most able in the class.

He said 'I can't understand what's gone wrong, so can't help fix it.'

So I said to dd 'What's the reason?'

She said 'The topics were boring.'

Teacher said 'That's not an excuse.'

I said 'No that's not an excuse that's her reason, how can we make the topic more enjoyable for you, do you need to write bullet points for revision, draw diagrams, how would you like to revise this.

The teacher said 'She's yr 8, science is not meant to be enjoyable, she just has to accept that she has to learn it.

He then finished the meeting by saying 'I can't understand why the test results were poor, so I can't do anything about it'.

Please any teachers or other parents, explain the other perspective, as I came out with my dd saying is this going to get worse. I said if education was meant to be unenjoyable no one would stay in FE. We'll make it enjoyable for you, and try new study techniques.

BTW she wants to do science at University, so certainly don't want her thinking it's meant to be unenjoyable.

Fantastic post Lady.

I understand what you are saying, and now see the difference. I will do the suggestions, and see if we can light the fire within.

Great post, LS.

I personally think that to little 'science' is taught in KS3 and KS4 now.

For example, I was doing a lesson on the Einstein's Theory of Relatively recently. The specification was not bothered about the actual theory at all, but how Eistein came up with it almost by accident (nuclear physics wasn't a discipline then, and it wasn't 'used' until the 1940s, culminating in the atomic bomb). Then we went on to learn about nuclear fusion - not fusion itself, but how scientists publicise their ideas and theories (by peer reviewed journals rather than press conferences). I, of course, injected some real science into the lesson, but a non-specialist or non-confident teacher may not have done that.

KS3 has moved almost completely over to teaching the scientific method, with very few science facts in there. This goes against the hierarchy of learning, which says you have to have a good foundation of knowledge (facts) before you can access higher level skills, such as application and synthesis. Needless to say, I teach pretty much how I have always been teaching, and bolt the HSW stuff on top.

IME, the overall love of learning (or as in so many cases, the idea that learning is boring/pointless etc) starts with the parents. If the parents are disengaged with education, the kids are much more likely to be. Unless they have absolutely brilliant teachers obviously!

MMM overall love of learning yes. A child being bored for 4 hours in one month, for 2 particular topics, during the last 11 years of formal educational setting that she has been in, means that maybe new techniques need to be shown to her (yes very well by the parents hence me making suggestions) to keep the enthusiasim.

But for a teacher to say its not meant to be enjoyable, seems so disappointing. But as others have said it hopefully was the wording the teacher used, rather than him thinking it shouldn't be enjoyable.

I am sure there are some children turned off education by the time they reach secondary but not all.

I teach eager interested chidren every day from 11 to 18, children alive with the love of learning and my subject. I also don't work with that many teachers in a constant state of despair, infact I can't think of any. Maybe I need to try harder.

As for the OP it depends on the situation. Sometimes children say they are bored because they are being rude and lazy sometimes they are genuinely bored. It is hard to tell. Not everyone finds everything intrinscically enthralling. If I discovered that my dd was not working as hard as she should because she was bored I would raise this at parents evening but I woud also give her rather short thrift tbh.

I think the teacher could have phrased it better. Or maybe he is just crap and boring.

I agree with LS my dd has a love of learning type B she gets that from us not school. It was there before she went to school.

cococake, sorry I hope you didn't think I was suggesting your DD's boredom is your fault - certainly not! it sounds like she's pretty enthusiastic generally, but as others have said the teacher is rather tired of it all.

it's all about the exams now, so if they don't enjoy the subject, students know they are just learning it all in order to write it in an exam and then they can (and often do) forget about it. that's not the education I want for my DCs

glad to hear that from you wastwinsetandpearls. must be a good school you're at! unfortunately I can't say the same for the school my DSCs are in (DSS in yr13, DSDs in yr7).

Why on earth would it all be about exams in year 7.

I can see much more exam pressure in year 13 they only have two and a bit terms. But year 7 seems mad.

I agree with wastwinsetandpearls - my DS is oblivious to learning for exams and he is in year 8 and hopefully will be for a few more years. I think though once kids get into the GCSE years though it does become a problem, I went mad at DD1 once because she was complaining that a teacher was telling them things that weren't on the exam syllabus and wasting her time. It can be a battle to get them to retain a love of learning if they become too exam focused.

well there's obviously less emphasis on actual exams in yr7, though it certainly was when DSS did yr9 SATs and GCSEs. sorry I didn't explain myself well there, I suppose I mean that it's all about learning a few facts, ticking a few boxes in terms of what they are supposed to know, without necessarily understanding and enjoying it IYSWIM? no exploring the subject, just fill-in-the-gaps worksheets

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr flippin rubbish school rant rant rant

That would piss me off as well Mathsmad and it should not be happening.

DD's science teacher (and I'd emphasise him rather than the school as a whole) do appear to be exam focused.

He said I am expecting her to get an A in GCSE, she has got those marks for all tests, just A/B level for these last 2, and he said he wants to ensure she gets the A. Well hopefully she will, and I have to say I'm sure she will have a different attitude to the exam as she does for all her end of term exams rather than class test. But that is 3 years away, and class should still be enjoyable.

Don't your schools have a lower school exam week? Every school I have ever been in has had one, sometime in the summer term.

It doesn't do the student any harm to get into the habit of revising and spending a week on exams. It punctuates their year.

With GCSE modules appearing as early as Year 9, it is important that they know how to revise, and how to do exams.

I don't really care that much about how my Year 7s do in their exams - it's not the end of the world to have a brain freeze at the critical moment - better in Year 7 than in Year 11. I have lots of other achievement data. I just want them to take their learning seriously and to do their best. Exams are not detracting massively from their education - it is one week, with some teachers in the previous week perhaps doing a revision lesson, and probably setting revision for homework.

For many schools, mine included, lower school exam week heralds the start of a fun few weeks of activities - house rounders, educational visits, whole school sports day, speech day, and lessons that are a bit more fun.

Yes we have exam weeks but as you say it does not hang over them like a cloud or affect the way I teach.

Every term they have an exam week, then in the summer term they have a main exam week (i.e. all sick leave must be authorised, no holiday is allowed etc). I agree with all the training this gives them, and touchwood she's always aced these. They have been done since year 3, so not a new concept or anything.