ABSTRACT
Practical work is very widely used in teaching science at all levels. It is more than simply a common practice; many science teachers see it as constitutive of the business of science teaching – being a science teacher means working practically with pupils in a laboratory setting (Donnelly 1998). The danger in this is that practical work can come to be done unthinkingly, because it seems the ‘natural’ and ‘right’ thing to do, rather than being chosen and designed to achieve a specific learning outcome.
