Talk is commonly recognised as being central to professional development for teachers. For trainee teachers, as they make their transition into becoming a qualified teacher, talking to experienced teachers during school based learning offers a valuable opportunity for them to enhance their personal learning (Guile and Young, 2001), gain new knowledge (GTC, 2004) and change their professional practice (Bubb, 2007). Whilst there have been a wide range of studies (for example Butterfield et al., 1999; Strong and Baron, 2004) that have examined talk between trainees and the classroom teacher, who is often referred as the mentor during a teaching practice, there are concerns that the mentor may not be best placed to provide subject specific support (Jarvis et al., 2001; Hudson, 2005). This is a particular challenge for science, where there continues to be international concern over learning of science and about science. The English Teachers’ Standards (DfE, 2011) include the expectations for a trainee teacher to demonstrate competence in teaching science as part of their subject and curriculum knowledge which aligns with key competences for lifelong learning in Europe (Gordon, J. et al., 2009; Caena, 2011).  

Learning to teach science in a primary school for children aged 5-11 in England requires effective partnerships between schools and regulated initial teacher training (ITT) providers. As a science tutor and Head of ITT in a University regulated ITT provider in the Midlands in England and responsible for all trainees during their training as well as our partnership with schools, it is of particular importance to me as a practitioner and researcher to explore ways to support the transition of trainees into qualified teachers.

In English primary schools, there is a member of staff, nominally referred to as a ‘science coordinator’, who are members of staff who have a role to ‘monitor, develop and evaluate effective teaching and learning’ (Smith, 2002 quoted in Farmery, 2004, 3) related to science in the school where a trainee is placed for teaching practice. According to the external regulator of ITT, Ofsted, it is considered that the ‘majority of courses (ITT) make relatively little planned use of the expertise of schools’ science coordinators, which limits the science input from schools to the training’ of trainees (2002, para. 25) and during teaching practice, trainees spend ‘too little time working with science coordinators’ (Ofsted, 2008, para 79). Despite this, there is still very limited research on talk between science coordinators and trainees.

The presentation aims to provide important hints to begin to explore the transition of trainees in learning to teach science by an analysis of how ‘science coordinators’ give instructions, ask questions, accomplish workplace tasks and build relationships. It may help to make explicit ways that ‘talk’ is involved within pedagogical approaches in learning to teach primary science and to inform the training provided by ITT providers to schools. In addition, the findings may also strengthen how science coordinators can convey science expertise by identifying particular words, phrases, tone and choice of topics which support trainees’ transition into a qualified teacher.

The main research question is: How may ‘talk’ with a primary school science coordinator influence a trainee learning to teach science? This is divided into two sub questions a) what are linguistic features and patterns in ‘talk’ between a primary school science coordinator and student during a teaching practice? b) What factors (including the participants, setting, topic and function) influence linguistic features and patterns of talk between a science coordinator and trainee during school based learning? 

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