International Journal of Educational Research 39 (2003) 51–72 Chapter 3 Group work in primary school science: discussion, consensus and guidance from experts Christine Howe*, Andy Tolmie Department of Psychology, University of Strathclyde, Ctr Res into Interactive Learning, Graham Hills Building, 40 George St., Glasgow G1 1QE, UK Abstract Research suggests potential problems when group work is used in school science to support the integrated acquisition of conceptual understanding and testing procedures. Yet integrated acquisitionispromotedbycurrentpolicy,andisapopularclassroomstrategy.WorkbyHowe etal.(LearningandInstruction10(2000)361)indicatesthattheproblemsmaybeovercomeif pupils: (a) discuss conceptual material in small groups and reach consensus; (b) subject consensual positions to guided empirical appraisal. The present paper reports a study with 9– 12-year old pupils, which tests the proposal of Howe et al. using heat transfer as its topic, in contrasttotheshadowsizeofHoweetal.Inbroadterms,theresultsareconsistentwithwhat Howe et al. report, although there are subtle differences in both outcome and process. Nevertheless,thesimilaritiesaresuchastoindicatearobusttechnique,withclearrelevanceto classroom practice. To facilitate application, the paper outlines what the technique requires in terms of group organisation and teacher support, and suggests that in both cases there is consistency with current practice. r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction 1.1. Group work in primary school science Groupworkbetweenpupilsisawell-establishedfeatureoftheapproachtoscience teaching that British primary schools typically adopt. Blatchford, Kutnick, and Baines’ (1999) survey of second and fifth year classes in 111 primary schools found that 34% of the teaching in science involved pupils ‘working together to produce a ARTICLE IN PRESS *Corresponding author. Tel.: +141-552-4400x2575; fax: +141-548-4001. E-mail address: c.j.howe@strath.ac.uk (C. Howe). 0883-0355/$-see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0883-0355(03)00073-9