Develop creative
and challenging
science lessons

And encourage pupils to use higher order thinking skills

Effectiveness
re-trial 2021-24

As one of the Education Endowment Foundation’s ‘promising projects’, TDTS is currently the focus of a national effectiveness re-trial from 2021-24, which aims to see how the positive impact of the TDTS approach can be maintained at scale via a train-the-trainer programme.

Find out more

Course overview

Welcome to Thinking, Doing, Talking Science (TDTS). TDTS is an interactive four-day training programme for teachers that focuses on developing creative and challenging science lessons that encourage pupils to use higher-order thinking skills.

TDTS teachers enable their pupils to think and talk about scientific concepts through dedicated discussion times, they provide them with a wide range of opportunities for creative investigations and problem solving and they focus pupils’ recording so that is there is always time for practical science.

The programme

What’s in it for me?

The TDTS programme is interactive, practical and enjoyable and provides strategies and activity ideas that can translate immediately into classroom practice without the need for extra expense and excessive planning.

Our highly-skilled TDTS team and training partners have a wealth of experience in science education and we have received extremely positive feedback from all the teachers and pupils in the hundreds of schools who have taken part so far.

Are the course materials tested?

The simple answer is yes! The TDTS ethos is based on original research funded by the Primary Science Teaching Trust and carried out by Oxford Brookes University in 2002-4.

Thanks to more recent funding from the Education Endowment Foundation, TDTS has been thoroughly evaluated via efficacy and effectiveness trials between 2012-2018. As one of the EEF’s ‘promising projects’, TDTS is currently the focus of a national re-effectiveness trial from 2021-23, which aims to see how the positive impact can be maintained at scale via a train-the-trainer programme. Read about the TDTS research programme and the impact of the course on pupils’ interest, self-efficacy and attainment in science here.

Our results

We’ve delivered 26 TDTS courses.

For 14 different regions of England.

In 390 schools.

Supporting 799 teachers.

Reaching 22,290 pupils.

For primary teachers

TDTS is suitable across the whole primary age-range. Our aim is for you to enjoy the training thoroughly and to see the immediate value for your pupils. Our intention is to help you to build on your existing good practice.

We will provide you with a repertoire of evidence-based strategies and you can choose and adapt them in ways that best suit your class. We understand how hard teachers work and we do not intend to add to that workload. We set out to build a team ethos – the trainers and the teachers learning from each other. You are the classroom experts and we value that.

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For secondary teachers

TDTS is currently a primary science focussed initiative but some work has begun on developing the ethos and strategies for the Key Stage 3 context.

In 2018-19 the Department for Education, via the Strategic School Improvement Fund, supported a TDTS project that enabled us to work with nine secondary schools in Herefordshire. The project aimed to improve the participation, engagement and cognitive skills of pupils in science through interesting and challenging science teaching.

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How we can help

Primary Teachers

TDTS courses are often available for primary teachers to book in York. For more information and to book, click here. Courses are also run in collaboration with our education partners in various regions of England – currently courses are taking place in Kent and Oxford – please contact us at tdts@scienceoxford.com for more information.

Education Partners

If you are an education partner who is interested in talking to us about TDTS courses for primary or secondary schools in your region, please contact us at tdts@scienceoxford.com

Course Attendees

If you have already attended a full TDTS course, please log in to access the course resources.

Access to these resources

Our online resources are for teachers who have completed a full TDTS course. To access the resources section, please contact andrew.kensley@scienceoxford.com with details of the course that you attended and the name of your school.

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“This has been a great opportunity to develop different techniques and methods to be used not only during science lessons, but across the curriculum. I have thoroughly enjoyed implementing these techniques, and feel confident that my class have enjoyed learning through them and have developed new skills.”

“It has been the best CPD and I have thoroughly enjoyed the sessions. You all worked so hard to share your enthusiasm and creative ideas with us. MANY, MANY THANKS!”

“I am convinced that the project has improved my teaching and I regularly use the ideas put forward in the project. I am also rolling these out across the school so that we all try to go for higher order learning.”

“Planning now allows the children to take ownership of their investigations. The discussions that take place are deeper, with children offering ideas and sharing thoughts and reasoning behind their ideas.”