Thrilled that our paper on how primary science education suffered during the #Covid19 school closures is published today by SN Social Sciences @SpringerNature. Open access. @ni_fallon and I surveyed teachers and parents during the closures last spring, : https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43545-021-00122-9

More than a third of teachers said they were teaching less science than normal - higher among those teaching in more deprived areas - and 30% said children were getting science less than once a week or not at all.

Teachers as a whole found setting science work for home learning very difficult, citing concerns about access to resources, internet connectivity and parental understanding as barriers. Those working in deprived areas felt this much more strongly.

While all families had received maths and English work from school, only two-thirds were set science. But some families were well-equipped to provide their own science learning - they had science kits in the house or could call on relatives to do Zoom experiments.

You can see where this is going. Kids from less affluent areas got set less science. Kids from "sciencey" families possibly experienced MORE science than usual, via informal channels. Entrenched inequalities were deepened.

This matters! Huge numbers of people/organisations put immense effort into widening participation in science, both for reasons of equity and because we need to grow the workforce. Will all this work be undone?

Another thing - we can't wait for these pupils to reach secondary school before we try to repair this damage. Research shows that attitudes to science are largely fixed by age 10. If we don't act soon, this whole primary cohort could experience heightened science inequality.

Thanks for reading, and if you are an organisation trying to address this problem, please get in touch - our research is ongoing. ENDS

@bio_fluff @microjology @DocJBrown @SujataPatel26 @SajedaHaji pls RT this thread