Robin Millar

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• PhD
• Professor Emeritus at University of York

Practical work is widely seen as an integral part of school science. Research and teacher guidance have tended to consider practical work in science, rather than in individual science subjects or topics. This study used a questionnaire of selected- and open-response items to probe the views and reasoning of a sample of 43 pre-service teachers in En...

York Science is a development and research project in England to support teachers in embedding formative assessment in their science teaching at lower secondary school level (students aged 11–14). The project is developing and trialling sets of diagnostic questions and tasks for each of the major strands of science which teachers can use to collect...

In this contribution we outline how the York Science project is using a ‘backward design’ approach to teaching science to students aged 11–14. We then present some examples of formative assessment tasks and show how simple selected-response questions can be modified to provide teachers with detailed information about students’ ideas. Finally we ind...

Developing students’ understanding of energy poses a particular challenge to science educators. There is less agreement than for most other topics about exactly what we want students to learn. The science education literature on energy is characterised by debates and disagreements about which conceptual frameworks and terminology are appropriate fo...

Assessment plays a crucial role in clarifying intended learning outcomes. This underpins its more widely acknowledged formative and summative purposes and its role in monitoring and assuring the quality of educational practices and systems. Assessment instruments reduce the ambiguity about what a stated objective really means by providing an operat...

This article considers the extent to which the English National Curriculum for science has influenced practice and learning outcomes, and briefly reviews the mechanisms through which this influence is exerted. It identifies and discusses three central issues for the review that is now in progress: the structure of the science curriculum; the purpos...

The framework developed for the PISA 2006 science survey starts from everyday contexts in which citizens encounter scientific issues and knowledge claims. Recent curriculum changes in England, making possible the introduction of courses for 15- to 16-year olds with an explicit “scientific literacy” emphasis, are based on a very similar analysis, id...

The past decade has seen fundamental questions about the nature and quality of educational research, and its relationship to practice and policy, placed prominently on the agenda in many countries. In the United Kingdom, the 1996 Teacher Training Agency lecture by David Hargreaves, then of the University of Cambridge, is widely seen as having playe...

Many within the science education community and beyond see practical work carried out by students as an essential feature of science education. Questions have, however, been raised by some science educators about its effectiveness as a teaching and learning strategy. This study explored the effectiveness of practical work by analysing a sample of 2...

Many within the science education community and beyond see practical work carried out by students as an essential feature of science education. Questions have, however, been raised by some science educators about its effectiveness as a teaching and learning strategy. This study explored the effectiveness of practical work by analysing a sample of 2...

A reader of Traianou and Hammersley’s article (in this issue), which discusses at some length the work we undertook in the Evidence‐based Practice in Science Education (EPSE) Research Network, might attribute to us views that are rather different from those which we in fact hold, and which we have sought to present in our own accounts of this work....

Abstract This paper argues that science's reputation as a ‘hard’ subject can be attributed to four intrinsic features of science and/or learners: that science knowledge provides, for many learners, insufficient ‘pay off’ for the effort involved in understanding; that learning science involves reconstructions of meaning; that the tension between sci...

In many countries, there is concern about the engagement of young people with science. Fewer are choosing to study science, particularly the physical sciences, in upper secondary school and at university level (for data on the UK situation, see Roberts (2002); for a European perspective, see European Commission (2004)). Across the years of secondar...

‘Scientific literacy’ is increasingly seen as the primary goal of school science. To address it, we must first acknowledge the tension within the school science curriculum between the aim of enhancing all students’ scientific literacy, and of providing a sound foundation for more advanced study in science for some students. The Twenty First Century...

Although the term “scientific literacy” has been increasingly used in recent years to characterise the aim of school science education, there is still considerable uncertainty about its meaning and implications for the curriculum. A major national project in England, Twenty First Century Science, is evaluating the feasibility of a more flexible sci...

In many countries, questions are being raised about the quality and value of educational research. This book explores the relationship between research and practice in education. It looks at the extent to which current practice could be said to be informed by knowledge or ideas generated by research and at the extent to which the use of current pra...

Although electromagnetism is an important component of upper secondary school physics syllabuses in many countries, there has been relatively little research on students’ understanding of the topic. A written test consisting of 16 diagnostic questions was developed and used to survey the understanding of electromagnetism of upper secondary school s...

En: Alambique : didáctica de las ciencias experimentales Barcelona 2006, n. 49, julio-septiembre ; p. 20-29 Se describe el curso de bachillerato 'Ciencia divulgativa' y se explican las bases en las que se fundamenta. Muesta como un curso sobre un tema específico y bien diseñado puede servir para consolidar de un modo sistemático la comprensión de l...

One aim of the Evidence‐based Practice in Science Education (EPSE) Network was to obtain a better understanding of the extent to which practitioners in science education recognise and make use of research findings in the course of their normal practice. The aim was realised through an interview and focus‐group study of views of practitioners on the...

This study explored the understandings of data and measurement that school students draw upon, and the ways that they reason from data, when carrying out a practical science inquiry task. The two practical tasks used in the study each involved investigations of the relationships between two independent variables (IVs) and a dependent variable (DV);...

Research report of project 4 of the Evdience-based practice in science education (EPSE) research network funded by ERSC TLRP This report presents the findings of an interview and focus group study which explored perceptions of educational research and its use amongst teachers of science and others engaged in science education. The rationale for the...

Explores the reasons why science should be taught to all school students and what the science curriculum should look like. Discusses three aspects of an understanding of science: understanding of science content, understanding of the methods of inquiry used in science, and understanding of science as a social enterprise. (JRH)

Recent arguments in science education have proposed that school science should pay more attention to teaching the nature of science and its social practices. However, unlike the content of science, for which there is well-established consensus, there would appear to be much less unanimity within the academic community about which “ideas-about-scien...

If we wish to explore the effectiveness of labwork for achieving its goals, we need to be clear about the aims of each labwork task and be able to describe its essential features in a systematic way. A model is presented of the process of developing a labwork task and evaluating its effectiveness. Two senses of ‘effectiveness’ are identified: the m...

This study examines the understandings that children bring to a practical science investigation, focussing on their reasoning as they collect and evaluate experimental data and draw conclusions about relationships between variables. Two practical investigations were used in the study, each carried out by 10 children aged 9, 11 and 13 (total n=60) f...

I want to focus on some questions which have always been important ones for science education researchers to consider but which are, I think, growing in prominence and therefore in importance. They are about the role and purpose of science education research. What is science education research for? What do we hope to achieve through the research, w...

Reports on a study by the Evidence-based Practice in Science Education (EPSE) Research Network that explores practitioners' views on the nature, use, and potential of science education research. (DDR)

This article describes the results of a study of the similarities and differences in laboratory tasks used in science education at upper secondary school and university level, in the three main science subjects, in seven European countries. The data source for the study was a collection of 75 laboratory instruction sheets for use at school level in...

Recent arguments propose that school science should pay more attention to teaching epistemic aspects of science. However, unlike the content of science, little is known about the extent of consensus within the science education community on which ‘ideas-about-science’ are essential elements of the science curriculum. This study sought to answer thi...

This article addresses the extent to which written diagnostic questions can be used to assess science students' representations of the nature of science. The responses of 731 European science students in upper secondary school and undergraduate programmes to two written diagnostic questions are analysed for consistency. The written questions yielde...

A longitudinal study of 250 students following the Salters Advanced Chemistry (SAC) course probed a range of chemical ideas including the exothermicity of bond formation and the development of thinking about covalent, ionic and intermolecular bonds. Students responded to the same diagnostic questions on three occasions: at the start, after eight mo...

Describes four projects: (1) using diagnostic assessment to improve science learning; (2) issues in the implementation of evidence-based approaches in science education; (3) teaching pupils 'ideas-about-science'; and (4) understanding the researcher-user interface. Describes projects that are focused on curriculum development and explores how teach...

A longitudinal study of 250 students following the context-led Salters Advanced Chemistry (SAC) course explored changes in students' thinking about basic chemical ideas. Students at 36 UK schools and colleges completed the same diagnostic test at the start, after 7 months and 16 months of their 20 month course. Questions probed a range of chemistry...

A number of countries are currently tackling the issue of curriculum reform in school science. In England and Wales, a 5-year moratorium on curriculum reform across the 5-16 age range will end in the year 2000. This article reviews the conclusions of a 2-year project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, which explored ways in which a new science cur...

This article looks at the treatment of physics topics within the applications-led Salters' Science GCSE course. It discusses, with examples, the changes in physics content and emphasis that resulted from application of the course's design criteria.

Recently, it was proposed that a curricular aim of science education should be to engender an understanding of the nature of the scientific enterprise among students, as well as a knowledge of the technical contents of science. Seven diagnostic instruments were designed and administered to students (between the ages of 9 and 16) in an effort to inv...

This paper reports some of the findings of the Procedural and Conceptual Knowledge in Science (PACKS) project. It documents children's ides about the reliability of experimental data, an important element of their understanding of science procedures. These ideas were elicited using a written survey instrument completed by over 1000 students aged 11...

This article argues that learning, in many areas of science, involves the learner in coming to see phenomena from the perspective of a mental model, or “story,” of the science domain involved. Using elementary thermodynamics as an example, the structure of an introductory teaching unit is described and justified. A key element of this approach is t...

This article argues that learning, in many areas of science, involves the learner in coming to see phenomena from the perspective of a mental model, or “story,” of the science domain involved. Using elementary thermodynamics as an example, the structure of an introductory teaching unit is described and justified. A key element of this approach is t...

Addresses the issue of what the curriculum might look like if the promotion of public understanding of science was taken as its primary aim. Discusses understanding science content, methods of science, and science as a social enterprise. (JRH)

Explores the reasons why science should be taught to all school students and what the science curriculum should look like. Discusses three aspects of an understanding of science: understanding of science content, understanding of the methods of inquiry used in science, and understanding of science as a social enterprise. (JRH)

We report the findings of a study, using diagnostic questions, of the ideas held by school students at age 16 in the UK about the ways in which the effects caused by radioactive substances can spread from their source. The results show that many students cannot clearly distinguish between the processes of irradiation and contamination and suggests...

Beaucoup s'accordent à penser que l'enseignement des sciences devrait parvenir à ce que les élèves comprennent ce qu'est l'approche scientifique de la recherche. L'analyse de tâches d'investigation scientifique typique met en évidence le large spectre des différents aspects de la compréhension requis pour réussir de telles tâches. Un modèle mettant...

The Salters' curriculum development projects provide complete applications-led science or chemistry programs for students ages 11-18. In terms of the scale of their adoption by teachers in the UK and the interest they have generated in other countries, the developments have been successful. This article is a retrospective analysis of the process of...

This paper describes an investigation into the understanding demonstrated by a small sample of students aged 14 and 16 and of adults of a simple thermal system. Interviews explored the constructs and explanatory ideas used by children and adults in interpreting the outcome of a heating experiment in which a candle was used to heat water in a metal...

The Procedural and Conceptual Knowledge in Science (PACKS) Project is concerned with children's ability to carry out investigation tasks in school science, and with the understandings which inform their actions. The project observed groups of children at three age points between 9 and 14 years, carrying out one of seven investigation tasks, and col...

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This paper looks in detail at the understanding of school students in the UK of fundamental ideas about radioactivity and ionizing radiation. An adequate grasp of basic ideas in this area of science would be widely seen as an essential element of functional `scientific literacy'. A written diagnostic test was developed and administered to a represe...

This paper reports an investigation of the performance of school students at age 15 on written diagnostic questions involving the prediction of meter readings in simple electric circuits with parallel branches. Results show that these students tend to perceive such questions in resistance‐current terms, with a primary focus on resistor addition, ra...

This paper reports an investigation of the performance of students at age 15 on written diagnostic questions involving the prediction of voltmeter readings in circuits consisting of two resistors in series. The results show that these students have particular difficulty with qualitative questions. Few perceive the two‐resistor series circuit as a v...

This article reviews children's ideas about radiation and radioactivity and identifies several common areas of misunderstanding. A new approach to teaching the topic at school level, which seeks specifically to address these known difficulties, is then proposed and outlined.

Incl. bibl., index.

Public understanding of science is commonly seen in terms of lay persons' understanding of the contents of science. This article argues that it may be more salient to consider public understanding of the internal processes of science ‐ of the nature of scientific knowledge and of the sorts of information that science can reasonably be expected to p...

A method was developed for representing school pupils’ knowledge about, and associations with, six basic scientific concepts, by classifying and coding the ideas produced in a free‐writing task. This allowed for quantitative comparisons within and between groups of pupils from different language backgrounds, all of whom were learning science throug...

Secondary teachers may be required to teach outside their specialist areas, either because of shortages of suitably qualified teachers or as a result of curriculum reorganisation. In the UK, the shortage of qualified physics teachers and the move towards balanced science courses result in many non‐specialists teaching physics. A survey of 250 scien...

This paper reports on the development and implementation of an introductory course on electric circuits based on a constructivist model of curriculum development and teaching. Pupil interviews before instruction explored and clarified the range of children's existing ideas and conceptions. A teaching sequence was designed to elicit pupils’ ideas, t...

This article outlines an approach towards interpreting the influence of social factors on the directions in which secondary school science curricula have developed. In particular, the influence of the institutional context of comprehensivization on emerging science curriculum materials in Britain in the 1960s is explored. From a survey of curriculu...

Recent experimental values of X-ray mass attenuation coefficients for the elements zota = 6 to zota = 18 in the energy range from 4 to 25 keV suggest improvements to the data set presented in the ICRU Report 17. The results are, however, in excellent agreement with the theoretical data of Storm and Israel (1970). Values of mass attenuation coeffici...

Recent experimental values of total attenuation cross section and photoelectric cross section for the elements C, N, O, F, Ne, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Cl, and Ar in the energy range from 4.5 keV to 25 keV, published by Millar and Greening (1974) are the first sufficiently comprehensive data set in this range to enable the smoothness of the functional rel...