Learner Voice - an exploration of the use of an explicit United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child based approach to understand children and young people’s experiences of, and attitudes to, learning science outside the school

The Scottish Government document “Building the Curriculum 3” (2008) defines the curriculum in Scotland as the “totality of experiences which are planned for children and young people throughout their education, wherever they are being educated”. In the Education Scotland “Science 3-18 Curriculum Impact Report” (2012) this agenda of recognising learning where it happens and ensuring that partners effectively support and progress the learning of children and young people was identified as being of increasing importance in Scotland.

The authors will provide an overview of an innovative approach to exploring children’s views on science experiences outwith normal lessons. It will provide an insight into working with children in upper primary school, within a framework informed by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and explore the development of a research instrument for use with children aged 8-11.

Children in a primary 5 class formed a Children’s Research Advisory Group, participating in a range of activities to engage in thinking about science. Through this, the children identified key themes which they felt should feature in a science experience and developed a questionnaire to explore the thinking of other children in primary 5, 6, and 7 around these themes. We will discuss the process of engaging children in this research, the developed instrument and next steps for the project.