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Student interest and learning in science has been suggested to decrease after students move to secondary school (Anderhag, 2016; Braund, 2016). One possible reason is content repetition stemming from a lack of recognition of students' previous experiences and knowledge in science (Braund, 2016). To enable discussions between teachers, we developed a professional development program in collaboration with a group of science teachers from primary (two) and secondary school (two). An educator from a local science center also participated in the project to broaden the perspective. The study was designed as a formative intervention, promoting expansive learning and transformative agency among participants (Sannino et al., 2016). We organized five events which included collaborative planning by using a tool (CoRe) to articulate the subject content to be taught (Loughran et al., 2004). Two of these events were open for other teachers to participate in. Research data was gathered through audio recordings of meeting discussions, group interviews and individual interviews with the teachers and science center representative.

The present study explored the opportunities and obstacles to continuity in science education that surfaced during a collaboration between teachers from different grade levels. Results indicate that teachers found CoRe useful for them, since it strengthened their agency and reflexivity which was considered useful during content discussions. Further, the tool induced reasoning around the term "progression", for example whether the move from writing the photosynthesis reaction using words, to using chemical symbols represented a progression. If so, what kind of development in student understanding did this progression facilitate? The findings suggest that the meaning of progression in relation to continuity in science education needs further investigation, for example during continued collaboration in formative interventions.

Keywords: Transitions, Science education, Content representation

References 

Anderhag, P., Wickman, P.-O., Bergqvist, K., Jakobson, B., Hamza, K.M., & Säljö, R. (2016). Why Do Secondary School Students Lose Their Interest in Science? Or Does it Never Emerge? A Possible and Overlooked Explanation. Science education, 100(5), 791–813.

Braund, M. (2016). Oh no, not this again! Improving continuity and progression from primary to secondary science. The School Science Review, 362, 19–26.

Loughran, J., Mulhall, P., & Berry, A. (2004). In search of pedagogical content knowledge for science: Developing ways of articulating and documenting professional practice. Journal 

of Research in Science Teaching, 41, 370–391.

Sannino, A., Engeström, Y., & Lemos, M. 2016. Formative Interventions for Expansive Learning and Transformative Agency. The Journal of the learning sciences, 25(4), 599–633.