Teaching element

Project Qualifications require a teaching element for the skills to successfully complete a research project, nominally 20 hours. Project Science course address the two kinds of skill listed in the specification.

• General ‘project skills’, which we call transferable skills, include the independent learning, critical thinking and problem solving needed to carry out a research projects
• Subject-specific ‘technical skills’, which are the skills scientists and engineers use to investigate and design solution

Teaching approach

The teaching in Project Science is based on our Authentic mastery approach, and has three key features:

1) Project stages: We simplify projects by modelling the stages of the scientific and engineering design process, and teaching them one at a time

2) Case-based instruction: We use realistic, engaging cases from science and engineering, where teachers guide students through a part investigation or design problem, coaching the skills needed

3) Action tasks: After a case, students are set a challenge using the skills learned, to apply them in a different context

1) 5-stage process

Part investigations have long been recommended as a way to reduce the learning demand by focussing on a small number of skills at a time, yet retaining the authenticity of the whole.

To do this, we first identified all the scientific practices involved in each type of project: Investigations, Design, and Research. Then we grouped them into a 5-stage process. The practices and stages are described in detail in the teaching syllabus.

2) Case-based instruction

Cases are concrete examples of how a professional has solved a problem. Case-based instruction has become the teaching method of choice in medical and business schools to prepare students for the complexities of real-world situations.

Case-based instruction has been used in science education to apprentice students into working like a scientists, and is a key strategy in Mastery Science’s KS3 course.

Science cases can simulate contemporary or historical discoveries. Most important is that the cases have human interest, narrative engagement, and personal relevance, so that students become engaged. Cases can also be chosen to improve the diversity of scientist images students experience.

The teacher introduces the case, and guides students through the process that the scientist or engineers used to solve the puzzle. Skills are learned ‘just in time’: at certain decision points, the teacher poses the challenge the scientist faced to students, which motivates the need for a particular skill, which the teacher then instructs and coaches students.

3) Action tasks

The goal is for students to apply the taught skills - called transfer. Far transfer means applying in a very different or complex context, like a real project, and this is hard. To scaffold the challenge, we start with near transfer. Here, students have to apply the skills in an analogous but no more complex context.

We provide near transfer through ’action tasks’ after each case, which are challenges based on the skills taught in one part of the investigative process. The action tasks can be used as a checkpoint for formative assessment, and even set for homework.