Introduction

The papers on teaching and learning in science classrooms point to the ways in which researchers in Europe are working to build on insights to children’s thinking about natural phenomena, in developing science teaching approaches which can be (and have been) used in ‘real’ classrooms. Three of the papers presented here focus on the use of analogies in teaching science concepts; two others consider how particular symbolic systems can be used to introduce children to some of the basic concepts of science. Opportunities for children to talk about their ideas concerning particular concepts or issues are prominent in all of the teaching sequences; two papers explicitly investigate the nature of talk, around computer-based problem solving exercises on the one hand and group concept mapping on the other. The content domains addressed through the teaching sequences include areas of fundamental importance such as circuit electricity, energy and nature of matter; this pure science focus is extended with two papers which consider teaching and learning about science-related social issues. Methodologically the approach taken in virtually all of these papers is to systematically and carefully lay out for the reader the approach taken in the teaching sequence and to make explicit the assumptions and rationale guiding its development. Koos Kortland goes one step further in this process in setting out ‘teaching hypotheses’ for his sequence; these are hypotheses which attempts to anticipate the ways in which children will interact with, and respond to, the developed teaching activities. Finally it is interesting to note that the analytical approaches to curriculum development, which characterize the planning and teaching described in these papers, are being researched across the age range, in primary as well as high school science teaching.