Primary Science: Teaching Theory and Practice

Now with online resources to support teaching practice!

An extensive knowledge of the primary science curriculum is not enough for trainee teachers, they need to know how to teach science in the primary classroom.

This is the essential teaching theory and practice text for primary science that takes a focused look at the practical aspects of teaching. It covers the important skills of classroom management, planning, monitoring and assessment and relates these specifically to primary science, with new material on assessment without levels. New coverage on being a scientist is included to help readers understand how science teaching goes far beyond the curriculum, whilst practical guidance and features support trainees to translate their learning to the classroom. And to support students even further with the very latest strategies in classroom practice, this 8th edition now includes the following online resources on the brand new companion website:

• practical lesson ideas for the classroom
• The Primary National Curriculum for science in Key Stages one and two
• tips for planning primary science
• useful weblinks for primary science teaching

Using this new edition with the supporting online material makes it an essential guide to effective and creative science teaching. 

John Sharp is Professor of Higher Education and Head of the Lincoln Higher Education Research Institute (LHERI) at the University of Lincoln.


Graham Peacock is Principal Lecturer in Education at Sheffield Hallam University. He has taught children across the primary and secondary age ranges.

Rob Johnsey, formerly a primary school teacher, lectured in primary science in the Institute of Education at the University of Warwick for several years.

Shirley Simon is Lecturer in the School of Education at King′s College, London.

I was appointed Lecturer in Sociology in 2012. I am currently PhD Programme Co-ordinator and convenor of three undergraduate modules. My research and teaching is concerned with the everyday life of urban public spaces. I am interested in, and encourage students to take an interest in, both the street-level politics of city life and the mundane accomplishment of mobility practices and interaction. These themes have been addressed through research on everyday sense-making in regenerated space, practices of street-based welfare and vulnerable urban groups and, most recently, an investigation of co-operative mobility practices. I also have an abiding interest in social science methodology as a topic of inquiry.