Staff

Ms Ros Roberts

Senior Lecturer, PGCE Secondary Programme Director in the School of Education

Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 48394

Contact Ms Ros Roberts (email at rosalyn.roberts@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

Ros joined the School of Education in 1996 having previously taught science/ biology in secondary schools and FE and PGCE students in Bristol. Now a Senior Lecturer her research interests include both the teaching and assessment of Procedural Understanding in Science along with curriculum developments such as How Science Works see, http://www.dur.ac.uk/rosalyn.roberts/Evidence/cofev.htm for example. Her current research is into the concepts of evidence and their role in open-ended investigations, argumentation and scientific literacy. Her research impacts on classroom practice, science curriculum developments and national science assessments.

Ros teaches and supervises on the primary BA(Ed) at Queen's Campus and the Secondary PGCE, focusing on key ideas in biology, scientific evidence and practical work. She supervises students at masters and doctoral level. She welcomes supervision enquiries from students with an interest in fieldwork and outdoor learning, ecology, biology, scientific literacy and the public understanding of science, scientific enquiry, teaching and understanding scientific evidence, science curriculum analysis, practical work in science and assessment in science.

Ros is Programme Director of the PGCE Secondary Partnership programme.

Research Groups

Curriculum and Pedagogy

Research Projects

Understanding Scientific Evidence

Research Interests

Biological investigations in school science
Fieldwork and outdoor learning in Science Education
Science subject knowledge in the school and ITT curriculum
Teaching for the public understanding of science

Publications

Journal papers: academic

Roberts, R. & Sahin-Pekmez, E. (2012). Scientific Evidence as Content Knowledge: a replication study with English and Turkish pre-service primary teachers. European Journal of Teacher Education 35(1): 91-109.
Mokuku, T. & Roberts, R. (2011). Outdoor Learning in Lesotho: Partnership Engagement on Appropriate Pedagogy in Education for Sustainable Development with the United Kingdom. Caribbean Journal of Education 33(1): 79-102.
Oshima, R., Roberts, R. & Ohtaka, I. (2011). Teaching the ideas about evidence underpinning statistics in science education: uncertainty and reliability. Journal of Science Education in Japan 35(2): 111-118.
Roberts, R. & Gott, R. (2010). Questioning the evidence for a claim in a socio-scientific issue: an aspect of scientific literacy. Research in Science & technological Education 28(3): 203-226.
Roberts, R., Gott, R. & Glaesser, J. (2010). Students' approaches to open-ended science investigation: the importance of substantive and procedural understanding. Research Papers in Education 25(4): 377-407.
Roberts, R. (2009). Can teaching about evidence encourage a creative approach in open-ended investigations?. School Science Review Special Edition 90 (Creativity)(332): 31-38.
Roberts, R. (2009). How Science Works. Education in Science 233: 30-31.
Glaesser, J., Gott, R., Roberts, R. & Cooper, B. (2009). The roles of substantive and procedural understanding in open-ended science investigations: using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to compare two different tasks. Research in Science Education 39(4): 595-624.
Glaesser, J., Gott, R., Roberts, R. & Cooper, B. (2009). Underlying success in open-ended investigations in science: using Qualitative Comparative Analysis to identify necessary and sufficient conditions. Research in Science & Technological Education 27(1): 5-30.
Roberts, R. & Gott, R. (2008). Practical work and the importance of scientific evidence in science curricula. Education in Science 230: 8-9.
Roberts, R. & Gott, R. (2006). Assessment of Performance in Practical Science and Pupil Attributes. Assessment in Education 13(1): 45-67.
R. Gott & R. Roberts (2004). A written test for procedural understanding: a way forward for assessment in the UK science curriculum?. Research in Science & Technological Education 22(1): 5-21.
R. Roberts & R. Gott (2004). Assessment of Sc1: alternatives to coursework?. School Science Review 85(313): 103-108.
R. Roberts (2004). Using different types of practical within a problem-solving model of science. School Science Review 85(312): 113-119.
Roberts, R. & Gott, R. (2003). Assessment of biology investigations. Journal of biological education 37(3): 114-121.
Roberts, R. (2001). Procedural understanding in biology the 'thinking behind the doing'. Journal of biological education 35(3): 113-117.
R.Roberts & R.Gott (2000). Procedural Understanding Biology: How is it characterised in texts. School Science Review 82(298): 83-91.
R.Roberts & R.Gott (1999). Procedural Understanding Biology: Its place in the Biology Curriculum. School Science Review 81(294): 19-25.

Books: authored

Cassidy, M., Lakin, L., Madden, D., Meatyard, B. (ed), Roberts, R. & Tribe, M. (2009). Biological Nomenclature. London: Institute of Biology.
R. Gott, K. Foulds, R. Roberts, M. Jones & P. Johnson (1999). Science Investigations 3. London: Collins Educational.
Gott, R., Foulds, K., Jones, M., Johnson, P. & Roberts, R. (1998). Science Investigations 2. London: Collins Educational.
Gott, R., Foulds, K., Johnson, P., Jones, M. & Roberts, R. (1997). Science Investigations 1. London: Collins Educational.

Books: booklets

Boohan, R., Campbell, P. Charlesworth, J., Galloway, I. Millar, R. Needham, R. & Roberts, R. (2010). The language of measurement: terminology used in school science investigations. Hatfield, Herts: ASE Publications.

Books: sections

R. Roberts & R. Gott (2002). Investigations: collecting and using evidence. In Teaching secondary scientific enquiry. Sang, D. & Wood-Robinson, V. London: ASE/John Murray.

Conference papers

Roberts, R. & Gott, R. (2010), A Framework for Practical work, Argumentation and Scientific Literacy, in Cakmakci, G. & Taser, M.F. eds, Contemporary science education research: scientific literacy and social aspects of science ESERA 2009. Istanbul, Turkey, Pegem Adademi, Ankara, Turkey, 99-104.
Roberts, R. & Gott, R. (2007), Evidence, Investigations and Scientific Literacy: what are the curriculum implications?, NARST. New Orleans.
Roberts, R. & Gott, R. (2007), Questioning the Evidence: research to assess an aspect of scientific literacy, ESERA Conference. Malmo, Sweden.
Roberts, R. (2007), Research into the Concepts of Evidence and their assessment and its impact on 'How Science Works', BERA SIG conference. Birmingham University, England.
Gott, R. & Roberts, R. (2003), A written test for procedural understanding: a case study into pupils' performance, European Science Education Research Association, Holland.

Other media: research

Roberts, R. (2007). Fieldwork, evidence and the 14-16 UK science curriculum. Teaching Ecology Newsletter (35): 6-10.

Reports: official

Hunt, A., Campbell, P., Needham, R., Ratcliffe, M. & Roberts, R. (2011). Ideas and Evidence in Science: Lessons from Assessment: An independent report to SCORE.

Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

Subject specialists: biology:
Science: Education, industry & the community: public understanding of science

Supervises

Current vacancies