A science exam for Year 4 students?

The latest rumour going around school corridors is that as from next year, students in Year 4 will have to sit for an examination in science.

The main argument for introducing an examination in science is to give more predominance to science in schools since students are only motivated to learn science if they have to sit for an examination and teachers are only motivated to teach science if there is an examination.

This is a far cry from the objectives outlined in the National Minimum Curriculum (1999) which states that even though in the later years of primary education, the teaching and learning becomes more formal, it should still focus on: "...creativity, spontaneity, exploration, play, experimentation, incidental learning, the integration of knowledge and flexibility in the planning and methodology of learning. Children should therefore remain active in their process of development (p. 76)."

In terms of assessment, the NMC (1999, p. 78) recommends that at much as possible at primary level, both formative (assessment which is used for the improvement of learning) and summative (assessment which is used to record achievement at the end of a course of study) assessments should be used and that records of these assessments together with examples of children's work be kept in a portfolio.

But before we can decide whether it is reasonable to assess science in Year 4 by means of an examination we need to explore two issues: first why we want students to learn science in primary school and what kind of science we want them to learn, and secondly why and how we want to assess whether students have actually learnt any science.

Let us take the example of two girls learning science in Year 4.

Francesca enters the science classroom. She sits down at her desk and her teacher starts the lesson. "Today the lesson is about electricity... Open your book on page 16." "If you look at the diagram in the book you can see that in order to make a circuit you need a battery, some wires, and a bulb in a bulb holder and some tape and crocodile clips to connect everything together. Look when you connect everything together the bulb will light up. Can you see it light up in the picture." The girls look blankly at the picture. "Ok... class now we are going to write a note... open your copybooks..." The teacher dictates a note on how a circuit is built up... the children write what the teacher has told them. Francesca stifles a yawn... She never guessed how boring science could be. No wonder all scientists are nerds and wear glasses. The teacher finishes the lesson. "Ok now for next time I need you to study the note that we wrote today. Also look at the diagram in the book and study it. Next week we will have a test and I will see who knows how to build a circuit." Francesca closed the book... yeah... yeah... she thought. "It's easy enough. I'll just study it by heart and it will be a sure 10 out of 10."

In another year 4 classroom the same lesson about electricity was underway.

Rebecca enters the science classroom. She looks at the desks. Wow... she thought "what are we going to do today?" On her desk she saw a couple of things which were not usually there. There were some wires, a battery, a bulb in a bulb holder, some crocodile clips, some tape... What was the teacher up to? The teacher entered the class and the girls looked quietly at her wondering what experiment they were going to do today. Science was so exciting. Rebecca loved science, they did something different each time. They tried things out, talked about it and the best part of it was that she could go home and explain how things worked to her younger brother who would look up to her amazed. The teacher told them to sit down at their desks. They were going to work in groups. They had a problem to solve. "Ok... girls look at your desk, can you tell me what you have there?" Rebecca put up her hand: "Some wires, a battery and a bulb, miss." "Good then your task today is to try and see how you can make the bulb light up... Go on try it out and then everyone will let us know how they managed." For the next 10 minutes the girls tried things out. They connected wires, batteries and bulbs... they made the bulb light... and they did it all by themselves. After 10 minutes the teacher said: "Each group will now show me how they managed to make their bulb light up... Rebecca show them how your group did it."

Rebecca stood up and told the class how her group connected the circuit to make the bulb light. She felt so proud. When all the groups had presented their work, the teacher gave them a handout. "Just fill in the handout with a description of what you did. Make sure to include a diagram and label all the parts correctly. Then I want you to go home and look at a torch and see how the circuit there is connected. Make a diagram of it. This work will go into your portfolio and you can write a little bit saying what you learnt from the experiment we did today."

Both Francesca and Rebecca are learning science but in very different ways. Francesca is learning science by heart for the test and getting fed up with it all and Rebecca is actually doing science, having fun in the process and learning a lot too. Research suggests that when we learn something simply for an examination we forget it straight away after the test is done; which is probably what will happen to Francesca. But when we actually understand what we are doing, when we enjoy it, then the learning is deeper and we are more likely to remember what we have learnt.

Francesca is already bored with school science. She is a passive participant in a lesson which fails to spark her immagination or creativity and has no relevance for her everyday life. All she is concerned with is getting full marks in her test, but this does not mean that she has understood anything about electricity.

On the other hand, after the lesson Rebecca could go home and explain to her younger brother all about building a circuit. She could also relate the science she had learnt to an everyday context since her teacher had asked her to go and see how a circuit in a torch was connected. Rebecca was constructing her own meaning of knowledge and she was actively involved in the process. She could see the relevance of understanding why you needed to know how a bulb lights up and she could apply it to something in her daily life.

Rebecca was doing science, she was observing, predicting, interpreting and classifying information and she was able to communicate her knowledge to her peers and her brother at the end of the lesson. She had managed to achieve deep understanding of a scientific concept which would remain with her throughout the rest of her life. She was being assessed within an everyday context as well.

She did not have to learn things by heart for an examination. She knew how to explain what she had understood to others and she was going to include her writings and her drawings in her portfolio which she could keep and take with her as she progressed to a higher grade in school.

Francesca has already labelled science as boring and for nerds... while Rebecca thinks that science is really cool. Francesca has been put off science while Rebecca already has the foundations for continuing science later on.

Going back to try and answer the question about what kind of science children should learn, to me it is clear that the kind of science I would like my children to learn is the science which focuses on their different talents and uses different methods of teaching to bring out the best potential in every child; a science which makes use of immaginative contexts which motivates and engages the children as they prepare for learning; a science which builds on the interests and common-sense knowledge of children and enables them to see the importance of science in their everyday life; a science which promotes independent learning and success and improved self-esteem. Going back to how we should assess learning in science, to me it is also clear that an examination will stifle this kind of science learning, because once an examination is set in place then it will become a rush to cover the syllabus and there will be no time left for play, for curiosity, for creativity and experimentation. The lessons will become geared for the examination and pupils like Francesca will turn their attention to the mark they can achieve rather than to what they can understand. This does not mean to say that the science learning should not be assessed, but that the assessment used should be for the learning of pupils rather than for their summative evaluation.

The main purpose of summative evaluation is to certify or select pupils, but in this case there is no need for certification or selection. All there is need for is a form of assessment which will ensure that the students are learning the concepts of science, will provide feedback to pupils, teachers and parents regarding the progress of their children and identify areas which need to be improved. This information can be used by the teacher to plan effective lessons and by the pupils to manage their own learning.

Asssessment can lead to students to elation or dejection and can influence the way in which pupils look at themselves as learners. Introducing an examination in science in Year 4 will surely lead to a number of students labelling themselves as failures in science... and this would lead to a rapid decrease in the number of students opting for science subjects at a later stage. Using other forms of assessment, such as the collection of evidence of work done in science in a portfolio together with the pupils' own reflection on what they have learnt in science, and the teachers' reflections on how the pupils have progressed will enable pupils to see what they can do in science rather than what they cannot do, to celebrate their achievements and hopefully lead them to the realisation that they can do science and can continue to do science.

If our vision is one of reducing science learning in our schools to rote learning of knowledge and facts, then let us introduce an examination in Year 4. If on the other hand our vision is the prospect of all pupils in Year 4 being enthusiastic and motivated active learners in science then, let us focus on making our ways of learning and teaching science as relevant and interesting as possible and let us use assessment for learning to ensure that the next generation of students have a deep understanding of the concepts and processes of science, a positive attitude towards science and the desire to become the scientists of the future!

Dr Chetcuti is senior lecturer, Department of Maths, Science and Technical Education, Faculty of Education, University of Malta.