ABSTRACT
Primary school science has been rather like the race between the hare and the tortoise. Only twenty years ago science had a low priority in the list of essentials for the primary school in the UK and was virtually invisible in the curriculum in practice (Clift, et al., 1981). English and mathematics now contend with science for first place in the many revisions of the National Curriculum for England and Wales (DfE, 1995). Similar changes in the status of science can be distinguished worldwide (Meyer, et al., 1992). In the intervening years the question has been largely whether content or process should drive the tortoise forward (Harlen, 1985). As the status of science has risen the process-content debate has become less of an issue and investigation has found an authorized place alongside content. It is now the nature of investigation that is the focus of the debate.
