MyScience : communities of practice around the teaching and learning of primary science

MyScience is a primary science education initiative in which being in a community of practice is integral to the learning process. The study explored participants’ perceptions of their involvement in the MyScience program from three Sydney metropolitan primary schools. Stakeholders included eight primary teachers, twenty-seven primary students and twenty mentors with science expertise - astronomers, engineers, secondary science teachers and students. New understandings about the evolving characteristics associated with the development of school-community collaborations including affordances and barriers that may influence their growth are reported. Involvement in MyScience transformed many participants’ views of science, science learning and science teaching.