Working with big ideas in mind

For many years there have been repeated and widespread calls for greater depth and less uncoordinated breadth in the goals of science education. The publication of Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education responded to this challenge by identifying a relatively small number of ideas that science education should aim for all students to develop. The feedback we received – from the many countries where the publication has been translated and used – gave no indication that it was necessary to make any more than minor corrections and changes in the descriptions of the ideas identified.  What is needed, however, is more experience and discussion of the implications in practice of working with these big ideas in mind. In particular, what difference does it make to decisions about the key elements of students’ learning experiences: choice of curriculum content, pedagogy and student assessment? In this section we attempt to answer these questions. The three aspects of students’ experience represented in Figure 1 are not independent of one another. As indicated by the arrows, changes in one affect the others. These interactions are important, since it is no use suggesting that the content should be focused on big ideas if the assessment requires memorising multiple facts or if the pedagogy does not forge links that are necessary to form these big ideas. It is no use advocating the use of inquiry-based teaching if there is an overbearing summative assessment system (whether by external testing or teachers’ judgements) or a curriculum overcrowded with content. Nor can we expect students to develop responsibility for their own continued learning if teaching does not allow time for reflection and room for creativity, or hope for positive attitudes towards science if the curriculum content seems to students to be remote from their interests and experience.