Why do so many pupils find science boring?

I have read a number of articles recently which have talked about the large number of pupils that find science boring.

As teachers of science we often assume that pupils find lessons interesting when there is practical work. I have had many lessons where pupils arrive (younger ones mainly) and they enthusiastically ask “What are we going to do today? Are we doing an experiment?”

I have increasingly come to think that a lot of practical work is done in science lessons simply to fill in the time. This will undoubtedly sound a bit cynical and I am not saying that practical work is a waste of time. What I am saying is that teachers really do need to think of what they are hoping to achieve by the practical activity.

This should be obvious because all good teachers should now be well up to speed on Assessment for Learning and making learning objectives clear to pupils. I am not convinced that this is always the case with practical work.

When I am getting pupils to do experiment, and this features a lot in my lessons, I always decide whether the results are important, is the experiment designed so that pupils get concrete experience of some abstract concept, or is there some other reason for the activity. This will affect how I organise things but I do think it is important for the teacher to let the pupil make mistakes.

Clearly safety cannot be ignored and it is sometimes necessary to step in. However, on most occasions pupils can safely make mistakes as long as I don’t interfere just so that they get good results. Rarely do the results really matter!

When observing science lessons in which there is practical work I am always keen to focus on whether the activity promotes thinking or, as sometimes happens, pupils just switch off and go onto auto-pilot as they start work. On many occasion like this I have gone round groups where things didn’t seem to be working and asked the question “Do you think this is going to work?” I often despair when I get the answer “No, sir.” only to see them carrying on in the same way!