EMERGENCE

At Four Marks Primary school we began to think that the way we taught science was not getting the best from the children. We decided we needed to give the children more ownership of their learning.

We found that observing exploratory play and listening to children’s talk is an important way for teachers to find out children’s ideas. Often the children knew more than we had anticipated.

Our approach is now more personalised because it takes into account and values the children’s previous experience, knowledge and interests. The section on emergence illustrates what we would do over a number of weeks. The topic shown in the clips shows children’s emergent science learning about ‘materials and their properties’.