Science 5/13: a Formative Evaluation

A Formative Evaluation of the Science 5-13 project is a book of 128 pages, published by Macmillan education in 1975. It describes the evaluation which took place throughout the project and which fed information from trials into the revision of the Science 5/13 Units for teachers. It records the history, aims and procedures of the project and the findings from student assessment, class observation and teachers’ reports.

Aims and objectives
To describe the procedures, instruments and results of the formative evaluation of the Science 5/13 project. The purpose was to assist in the production of the Units for teachers by gathering and feeding back data from trials of the draft materials.

Approach
The evaluation was part of the Science 5/13 project throughout, the evaluator being a member of the project team (and co-author of the general guide to the project). During the early development of the project the evaluator helped in clarifying the objectives of the project which were subsequently included in each Unit for teachers. Evaluation materials devised and used in the first set of trials included: questionnaires for teachers (both general and specific to each Unit); forms for observation and discussion with teachers and children by team members during class visits; tests for children in the form of questions about filmed sequences of real events or objects relevant to the Unit being used. The tests were administered to the trial class and to another, control, class in the same school as pre-tests and post-tests at the start and end of the trial periods. The evaluation of later sets of units focused more closely on pupils’ and teachers’ experiences rather than on short-term pupil achievements.

Context
The Science 5/13 project was one of the first curriculum development projects of the Schools Council, the project being also funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the Scottish Education Department. The Schools Council required all its projects to be evaluated and set up a forum of Schools Council project evaluators.

The results of the evaluation have been implicitly applied in further primary science materials such as Learning Through Science.

Contents
1. The origin, aims and methods of science 5/13
2. The role and purpose of evaluation in the project
3. Evaluating trials of the first set of units
4. Evaluating trials of the second set of units
5. A change in the approach of the evaluation
6. Progress and results of trials of third and fourth set units
7. Evaluation of the project: present and future
Appendices
Index

• URL: http://stem.org.uk/rx4gb