013448 Science and Technology Education for Primary Schools

Description

This subject engages pre-service teachers with the teaching and learning of science and technology in primary school. In this subject, pre-service teachers reflect on their reading of the literature and experiences in the classroom to develop their philosophy of learning and teaching in science and technology. Pre-service teachers also develop their understanding of the nature of science and technology, an important component of scientific knowledge and its development as a human endeavour. A focus of this subject is on clarifying and developing primary school students' conceptions in science and technology, primarily through inquiry-based, constructivist, pedagogical practices. Pre-service teachers in this subject learn how to access information in a variety of forms from a range of sources, and how to critically evaluate information and ideas. This is fundamental to lifelong learning and for developing scientific, technological, information and language literacies. The pre-service teachers are guided to use the NESA Science and Technology K–6 syllabus to organise content into effective learning and teaching sequences and to employ a range of teaching strategies and resources, including ICT, that engage school students in their learning. The subject locates learning and teaching in intellectual, practical, creative, social, gender-inclusive and culturally sensitive contexts.