On 26th August 2019, members of the OARS team (Drs Liam Guilfoyle, Judith Hiller and Ann Childs) delivered a presentation to the European Science Education Research Association in Bologna, Italy.
The title of the presentation was “Looking Backwards to Move Forwards: Changing Opportunities for Argumentation in English Science Curricula Since 1989“. They reported on a detailed curriculum analysis of the National Curriculum for Science documents since 1989. The findings help to inform the project about opportunities for argumentation that exist within science curriculum documents despite there being no explicit references to argumentation with these documents. Given that the National Curriculum for Science has subject to frequent revisions since 1989, was important to consider how opportunities for argumentation might be represented differently in various revisions of curricula.
The presentation was well-attended and the subsequent discussion within the session provided the project team with valuable comments for consideration which is sincerely appreciated.