Curriculum change creates pain. As any marketeer knows, we buy things to take away the pain – such as new KS3 schemes. Like medicines, they can have side effects. Unlike medicines, the publisher doesn’t print warnings on the package. For your and your students’ sake, here they are:
#1 Do not throw away the great lessons you had already. Instead cherry pick lessons from the scheme.
#2 Do not let the publisher’s guidance on teaching or assessment trump your own judgement.
#3 Topics and double page spreads may hinder students’ understanding of the Big Ideas.
#4 Do not slavishly follow lesson plans: they may not reflect how students learn best.
#5 Avoid over-use of textbook: students may learn that science is just a body of knowledge
Future posts will discuss these side effects in more detail …