Abstract

The Effecting Principled Improvement in STEM Education [epiSTEMe] project undertook pedagogical research aimed at improving pupil engagement and learning in early secondary-school physical science and mathematics. The project designed and trialled a classroom intervention, with associated professional development, in a form intended to be suited to implementation at scale within the English educational system. Guided by principles endorsed by the research literature and drawing on a range of resources, the most distinctive feature of the epiSTEMe pedagogical approach is its inclusion of a component of dialogic teaching. Aimed at the first year of secondary education, the epiSTEMe intervention consists of a short introductory module designed to prepare classes for this dialogic teaching component, and topic modules which employ the epiSTEMe pedagogical approach to cover two curricular topics in each of science and mathematics. Over the 2010/11 school year, a field trial was conducted in 25 volunteer schools, randomly assigned to intervention and control groups.