Practical work in primary science education: using a scoping review and educator survey to create a new framework for prioritising purposeful use

Practical work is seen as a fundamental part of science education, but its purpose in primary (age 5–11 in the UK) is not always clear. A new definition for practical work raises the profile of multi-modal communication during “hands-on”, “minds-on” science learning experiences. This scoping review of academic and grey literature identified ten possible purposes for practical work within 54 included documents. These ten purposes were applied to the reality of educators’ experiences through a UK-wide survey (n = 231), with participants asked to describe what they saw the purpose of practical work to be, before being asked to rate the relative importance of the ten extracted from the literature. Participants identified all purposes as important, but some as less likely to be enacted in the classroom. A “Purposes of Practical Work in Primary Science Framework” is presented to support the prioritisation of objectives for the focus of individual practical work activities.