... ideas and words, so called "word work" (Sutton, 1992). In the past, most of the creativity of science teachers was channelled into organising practical work for their classes. The need now is for a corresponding inventiveness in organising word work (Sutton, 1992). "... students need to spend more time interacting with ideas and less time interacting with apparatus." (Gunstone, 1991, p. 74) The Curriculum includes a statement on 'Use of Language' in its 'Common Requirements' for all key stages, and the QCA Programmes of Study also state that pupils should be taught to "use appropriate scientific vocabulary to describe and explain the behaviour of living things, materials and processes." (QCA, 1999, p. 11) What are the alternatives to practical work? One alternative is to use text by 'active reading'. Often pupils read texts passively and answer questions without understanding the ideas they have encountered and without constructing any meaning from them. Techniques that give pupils an ...

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