4 Summary

Encouraging your students to talk about science in pairs will bring many benefits to your teaching. Working in this way will motivate your students and will develop their capacity to think and solve problems.

To get the full benefit from this approach, there are two key changes that you will need to make in your classroom, which you will be able to use in every topic. First, you will need to get used to there being more noise in your classroom. Second, you will need to be comfortable with allowing your students to change their own answers, like Mrs Ranjam did in Case Study 3. Students will be used to the idea that they should not copy other students work, and will often see homework as a sort of ‘test’. But changing their answers because they realise that they have made a mistake is not the same as copying, and homework is a chance to learn. If a student realises that they have made a mistake, and most importantly understands why, they should be allowed to correct it themselves. The time to ‘test’ them is at the end of the topic, when they have had chance to revise the work.

Your students will need time to get used to working in this way, but when they do, you will see many benefits. The lessons will become more enjoyable, your students will become more confident and willing to take responsibility for their learning, and you will have a better idea about how they are doing – even in a large class.