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Teaching Secondary Science: A Complete Guide
£15.20
Teaching science is no simple task. Science teachers must wrestle with highly abstract and demanding concepts, ideas which have taken humanity’s greatest minds thousands of years to formulate and refine. Communicating these great and awesome theories involves careful forethought and planning. We need to deliver crystal clear explanations, guide students as they develop their embryonic knowledge and then release them to develop their thinking independently, all the while curating and tending to their long-term understanding as it develops over time. In Teaching Secondary Science: A Complete Guide, Adam breaks down the complex art of teaching science into its component parts, providing a concrete and comprehensive set of evidence-informed steps to nurturing brilliant science students. Adam hopes that you find this book interesting, but his main aim is for you to find it useful. Useful when it comes to sketching out your curriculum, useful when preparing your explanations, useful for mapping out how you will check student understanding and useful for all other aspects of science teaching. This is a truly complete guide, and science teachers of any experience will find it packed with ideas that are new, challenging, interesting and, most importantly, useful.
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by Henry
This really is a brilliant book. I struggle to read education books, but read this one cover to cover. It is packed full of useful strategies that really are relevant to the science classroom (I am a Biology teacher), but would also be useful to teachers in a wide range of subjects. I was struck by the simplicity of many of the strategies that Adam Boxer discusses, and how realistic they can be to introduce into the classroom e.g. the ‘Q&DC&C’. He also includes some excellent summaries of educational research to back up a lot of the strategies he uses. I think it could genuinely transform the way I approach my classroom.
by Liz
Adam Boxer is an excellent writer and the book itself is inspirational, I have recommended it to colleagues. However the copy I received is missing pages 256-289. If the rest of the book is anything to go by I am missing some gems in those 30+ pages!
by Jjbeeswax
THE book to buy imho for science teachers. I refer to this book more than any other, constantly going back to review it for different topics that I’ve tagged in my book. Transformative for student learning, massive impact in the classroom. I can’t recommend it highly enough. If you’re a trainee or ECT, ignore the recommendations for ‘how to be a great trainee’ (those type of books are a total waste of your time), whereas this is gold dust – you definitely need this!
by Jesse G.
I have been a Science teacher since 2003, and have been working as an Advanced Skills Teacher, Lead Practitioner or Head of Department since 2007. So, you’d think I knew a thing or two about teaching Science. This book has made me rethink the way I ask questions, use diagrams, explain difficult concepts and much more. It is incredibly well thought through. I am surprised and grateful for way it has made me reflect on my practice.
by dominic
This is a fantastic book that I consider the ‘bible’ for science teachers. This book has great clarity but also so dense with useful information to apply directly into the classroom. The narrative throughout of allowing the reader to build an understanding of key principles in direct instruction and cognitive science through the challenge equation makes this book stand out for its rigorousness. If you are early career teacher, trainee teacher or experienced read this book and avoid the silly mistakes that affect teacher workload as well as student performance. I wish I had this book during my teacher training – would have saved me a lot of unnecessary banging against the wall!
by Jjbeeswax
I recieved Teaching Secondary Science book for Christmas. Absolutely brilliant read so far!!! Thank you Adam for taking the time to package these theories into actionable steps – particularly enjoy the walk thrus!
by Lee James Moore
I’ll cut to the chase. Reading Adam’s book is quite simply the best CPD I’ve ever done. I’m a Head of Department and a Chair of the Science Faculty. Reading this book really made me question and rethink a lot of how I approach teaching and learning in the Sciences. I genuinely could not put it down when I got it last summer term! I have been singing its praises to anyone in my Science Department, and I’ve bought several copies to keep in Departmental Offices.
Adam’s writing style is very clear, and concise. It feels like you are in a professional dialogue with him, with the text being his side of the conversation. The chapters are short and easy to read, and his work is thoroughly backed up with educational research as well as through the amazing work of the eduTwitter and the CogSciSci community. As a Physics specialist, the section about understanding of what equations mean and how to teach for understanding when doing equations really resonated with me.
Most of the time when I read T&L books I find it difficult to know how to apply the research to science pedagogy, bu with Adam’s book you can immediately think how you would trial out the methods he writes about. He also gives loads of detailed worked examples throughout the book, relevant to Physics Chemistry and Biology.
If you are a science teacher, at any stage of your career, buy and read this book. If you are about to train to be a science teacher, buy and read this book. It is worth every single penny.
Thank you Adam!
by Matt
Have your eyes ever glazed over as somebody begins to talk “group work is great because it teaches skills”? This book is the antithesis of that, no vague statements about teaching, concrete examples of good practice backed up with the evidence of why it is effective. As someone who holds Adam as a core role model of how to teach science effectively, I have watched and read an awful lot of what Adam has to say and every single minute spent engaging with his wisdom has been valuable to me. Even still, in this book Adam has expertly sequenced and communicated his ideas and modelled expertly o you can take these ideas and actually use them tomorrow.