This introduction sets the scene by exploring the richness of the diversity of learners and critically examines the imperative for educators within the current educational climate to employ pedagogies that transform learning experiences, particularly for those who continue to be marginalised and are increasingly disengaged from education. The aim of the introduction is to lay the foundation for the significance of supporting educators in pedagogical decisions that prioritise and are socially just and responsive to the inclusion of all learners, thereby engaging and empowering learners as active co-designers and self-regulators of respectful, meaningful and impactful learning. In scaffolding educator efficacy, the introduction encourages self-reflective strategies for sustained critique of applying inclusive, responsive, enabling and socially just pedagogical approaches within their educational practice.

The Conservative effect is notable in education, with several reforms at the department, beginning with the most (and only) successful Education Secretary Michael Gove and continuing throughout the ten Education Secretaries over the remaining ten years. The rapid churn made for inconsistent policymaking, and a lack of long-term planning. It ends with the Conservatives’ role in guiding the education system through Covid, and the return to ambitious plans under the final PM, Rishi Sunak. The chapter will also scrutinise Conservative higher education and university policy, and whether there was an opportunity wasted with universities.

In order to analyze the relationship between international, EU and national law properly, this chapter establishes a working hypothesis: a common denominator of international, EU and national law. Analogous to the historical idea of social contract theory, this common denominator is consensus. After revisiting the major criticism of consent as a (moral) obligation to obey the law, the chapter elaborates on the moral duty to adhere to the pacta sunt servanda principle. After discussing the thesis of an innate Universal Moral Grammar (UMG) that relies on an analogy to the thesis of a universal grammar of the human faculty of language in linguistics, this chapter submits that Colwyn Trevarthen’s concept of primary, secondary and tertiary intersubjectivity is more suitable for conceptualizing the origins and development of the biological setup of human morality. This chapter refers to intersubjectivity, as the decisive concept to align morality and its development with core concepts of (developmental) psychology in order to lay bare the origins of moral normativity, which is essential for us as a basis for the pacta sunt servanda principle.

This chapter considers the major causes of mortality and morbidity for adults and describes the significant burden of these non-communicable diseases, their risk factors and potential public health action. While the conditions discussed are relevant to other age groups, those included – cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, mental health problems and long COVID – have particular relevance for the large proportion of the population of working age. This chapter also focuses on specific actions or policies which can be employed to address each of these non-communicable diseases.

The causes of ill health and death are changing and, as we live longer, new health-preventable problems emerge, bringing new challenges. Improving health (physical, mental or both) and promoting general well-being remain major priorities.

Just as important, the difference in health status between rich and poor continues to grow. At a global level, the picture is even more complex. Although there is some evidence that life expectancy is beginning to plateau in developed countries such as the UK, the biggest potential to improve health still lies in addressing inequality between or within countries.

Therefore, this chapter:

• summarizes the models of health improvement that are prevalent today;

• introduces a combined conceptual model to describe the factors affecting health in modern times; and

• presents some case studies of interventions designed to improve health which offer important insight and learning.

This chapter explains the role of national and state/territory education authorities in providing guidance for teachers when assessing students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in primary science education. It also presents a range of strategies which allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and understandings at various time points (before, during and after) in science learning sequences. While the notion of assessment often relates to teacher judgements of what students do or do not know and how well they know it, a key goal in education is to develop students’ metacognitive abilities so that they can judge their own learning themselves. The focus needs to be on inclusive strategies and resources that improve not prove learning (Skamp & Preston, 2021), while positioning students as knowledge constructors and sharers rather than knowledge consumers. Strategies for identifying students’ learning in the Australian Curriculum: Science will be explored.

Having addressed how the Technologies learning area can support the learning of primary science in Chapter 7, this chapter presents a range of additional examples from English, Mathematics, Humanities and Social Sciences, the Arts, and Health and Physical Education. As discussed in the Introduction to this book, curriculum integration (CI), which is also referred to as interdisciplinary or cross-curricular teaching, should only be used where there is a complementary, and preferably a synergistic fit between targeted science concepts and concepts in other learning areas, so student understanding is enhanced, not diluted or confused. This specification is at the core of the examples presented in this chapter, where the relationship between science and other learning area concepts has been meticulously considered. Another key consideration is the contexts in which the various concepts are presented to students so that real-world connections can be linked to local examples within their life experiences.

In this chapter you are asked to consider how your behaviour and activities as a teacher and role model in primary science classrooms may influence students’ perceptions of themselves as learners of science and therefore their science identities. Research-informed strategies are discussed and analysed for ways to address low levels of science efficacy in both yourself and your students. A range of teaching strategies for engaging students with science concepts and twenty-first century skills are presented, such as using scaffolds to ‘predict, observe, explain’ (POE) and to undertake ‘claim, evidence, reasoning’ (CER) activities; using models; and using the outdoors.

This chapter explores the notion of ‘technologies’ in the Australian Primary Curriculum in the Learning Areas of Design and Technologies, and Digital Technologies, and in the General Capability area of Digital Literacy, and the ways in which they can be used to enhance the learning of science. You will be introduced to contexts that provide opportunities to harness the synergistic relationship between the processes of thinking and working scientifically, and design and production skills, to solve authentic problems or issues. Examples of effective Design Challenges will be presented as ‘hooks’ to gain student interest and to purposefully address required concepts in Science, and Design and Technologies in the Australian Curriculum. Opportunities for including links to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures through a Design and Technologies approach will be included, with links to a range of useful resources.

This chapter presents foundational ideas and discussion around the notion of worldviews, including how they develop, how they are influenced by education and how they impact learning. There is a focus on identifying the features of worldviews that incorporate science perspectives with an emphasis on strategies for nurturing and developing students’ scientific dispositions, such as their ‘science identity’ and ‘science capital’. The contributing role of primary science education through the Australian Curriculum will be examined. As we work through these ideas, you will examine your own worldviews about science and use evidence from the science education research literature to explore current views about the purposes of science education in primary schools.

This chapter presents illustrated examples of successful units of work designed and implemented by experienced teachers for a range of topics and ties together ideas from Chapters 2 (curriculum requirements), 3 (assessment), 4 (lesson sequencing) and 5 (teacher role). These units are considered to be successful because they address required, relevant aspects of the science curriculum; each has been implemented in primary school classrooms with students; those students have been engaged and interested in the related scientific concepts; and all students have demonstrated evidence of learning resulting from the designed experiences.

This chapter presents a range of inquiry-based approaches for scaffolding learning experiences in science education using a constructivist theoretical framework. Discussion will focus on understanding the underpinning constructs of inquiry-based approaches using the 5E approach and project-based learning as contemporary examples. The components of how single and sequenced science lessons/learning experiences can be designed to optimise students’ learning of targeted concepts will also be discussed.

This chapter presents authentic ways through which one or more of the cross-curriculum priorities (CCP) may be integrated into science-focused units of work to optimise student learning in both science and the CCP. The three Australian Curriculum areas are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia, and Sustainability. They were first detailed in the Melbourne Declaration and are seen as key for supporting ‘the Australian Curriculum to be a relevant, contemporary and engaging curriculum that reflects national, regional and global contexts’. Examples in the chapter for each CCP are drawn from historical and current contexts and aim to provide a rich tapestry of ways to enhance student learning in science. In each of the following sections, where relevant, science conceptual understandings are linked with relevant CCP information, research findings and resources, with the goal of enhancing your confidence and competence in teaching primary science while including CCP perspectives.

This chapter explores how science education concepts may be integrated within STEM education contexts to enable student understanding of those concepts. We outline why STEM education is a strategic priority in many educational jurisdictions and note that a continuum of entry points into STEM education translates into a range of definitions and classroom implementation strategies. Aspects of science education (pedagogical practices, topic areas and skills) that lend themselves to STEM inquiry units are discussed with examples provided of how science concepts may be embedded and assessed.

This final chapter is future-focused and designed to encourage you to think deeply about classroom teaching. The types of low-tech resources needed for effective science learning are identified, with examples of where they may be used in learning experiences associated with foundational science concepts. We review what is covered in this text, how it aligns with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at Graduate and Proficient levels and recommend a range of resources and organisations that provide ongoing professional learning opportunities. Finally, we consider the role of primary science education in preparing current students for an unknown future where they will need to be digitally confident, global in their outlook, and great problem-solvers with the ability to critically question claims and evidence when making important decisions.

This chapter explores a number of researchers’ ideas about the ‘big ideas’ in primary science education. The most recent iteration (version 9.0) of the Australian Curriculum: Science, released in May 2022, is deconstructed to identify what is recommended, and how implementation in schools is enacted by states and territories. Key concepts linked to the three curriculum strands of Science Inquiry, Science Understandings and Science as a Human Endeavour are identified and mapped to conceptual learning progressions so developmental sequences can be clarified to enable planning. Many alternative science conceptions are held by students so you are invited to reflect on your own understandings of a range of key science concepts, to compare them with students’ alternative conceptions as found in the literature, and to consider where and how your own personal conceptions may have come about.

This book is about primary science education. It presents the latest evidence-informed ideas, strategies, resources and information for your consideration as you build your knowledge and expertise as a teacher in this foundational learning area. Underpinned by the premise of building your own and your students’ science identity, there is a focus on learning through using local outdoor areas, socio-scientific issues and current events as stimuli for questions and investigations to better understand how science is practised in the real world, and that it is a ‘messy’ human endeavour – particularly when it comes to solving real-world issues. Each chapter and its sections respond to questions about why we teach science in primary school, how students can demonstrate their learning, how to plan effective lessons and learning sequences, the teacher’s role in a primary science classroom, how the integration of other learning areas and cross-curriculum priorities can be used to support the learning of science concepts when there are compelling synergistic links, and much more.