Education Guardian
Steve McCormack
19 February 2008
Newton’s knockout blow
Giving pupils the freedom to do their own research, with help from specialist teachers, opens up a world of inquiry.
When secondary pupils move between their classroom and the library, mid-lesson, it’s often seen as a chance to waste a bit of time chatting, or peering into other rooms to distract friends. But this attitude is absent as a group of 14 teenagers from Nicholas Chamberlaine technology college, near Nuneaton, stride purposefully through the library doors, log on to a line of computers and start surfing the internet to research the project they’ve just been discussing in the science lab. The thirst for knowledge here is insatiable.
This is a mixed age-group, gifted and talented class: boys and girls drawn from years 8,9 and 10, all following a GCSE astronomy course for one lesson a week after school. Their task, in two teams, is to research arguments for and against a return to manned lunar missions, preparing for a class debate on the issue.
Joining in today, occasionally prompting the pupils to explain their current line of inquiry or encouraging them to seek more evidence, is Linda Atherton, science adviser for Warwickshire education authority. She’s pioneering an approach to teaching science in the country’s schools which gives pupils the freedom to direct their own research, rather than to be fed a pre-cooked slab of syllabus content.
The approach, called Newton’s Bruises, is an attempt to persuade pupils to have open and inquiring minds, in the way that Isaac Newton did when he discovered gravity. Atherton will be presenting Newton’s Bruises in the show’s secondary skills showcase.“It’s about pupils taking ownership, questioning and probing issues themselves, and the teacher being more of a facilitator,” she explains. Back in the classroom, the pupils enthusiastically endorse this style of lesson. “Normally, you might find out something that you knew already. Here, you decide what you want to learn,” says Daniel. “We use our own methods rather than do it the way we are told,” adds Rhys. “It’s learning in a way that makes things stick,” agrees Alex.
Atherton who has used this approach with all ability ranges in Warwickshire secondary schools, says that it matches the new curriculum, which stresses the need for pupils to develop personal learning and thinking skills, applicable across the timetable and in the world beyond the school gates.