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The data for this research were collected from three teachers within
the same school. Document analysis, interviews and classroom observation
provided data triangulation. The findings suggest that young students can
engage in ethical discussions in science – and do so, enthusiastically. They
also confirm that primary teachers need support to teach ethics in science.
For example, all three teachers reported the development sessions were
necessary to help them understand ethics concepts and to give them ideas
and strategies for teaching ethics in science. This is supported by research demonstrating that intervention in the form of teacher development and
planning is vital for teachers to develop pedagogical content knowledge in a
new area. In particular, teachers reported that the ethics-in-science planner
helped them consider the classroom interactions on which they wanted to
focus the outcomes, demonstrating that ethics in science can be meaningfully
taught in the primary classroom. This raises the issue of teacher development
and how this would be funded and implemented for the purpose of
developing the pedagogical content knowledge of primary teachers for the
teaching of ethics in science.