Supporting Science Teachers to Embed Writing: Teacher Perspectives and Curriculum Redesign

Abstract

Science teachers frequently express concern about their students’ writing skills but often feel ill-equipped to provide adequate support despite acknowledging its importance. This tension points to the distinct challenges of teaching writing in the science classroom, which necessitates the provision of structured scaffolding. To address this issue our study engaged science teachers in a collaborative project to redesign a unit of work on plate tectonics using the Teaching and Learning Cycle (TLC) as a pedagogic framework to enhance students’ writing capabilities. Interviews with participating teachers revealed not only their perspectives on teaching writing, but also valuable insights from the collaborative redevelopment process, reflections on implementing the TLC as a unit planning framework, and details of our resulting intervention. Notably, teachers reported transformed perceptions and increased confidence, which lead them to integrate more writing activities in their classrooms. These results offer insights into challenges, opportunities and structures that support science teachers in effectively embedding authentic writing activities into their science units.