Book 3 of BtL (and Part 2 of the Fasttrack) teach the discourse structures described by Michael Hoey in his 1983 book On the Surfact of Discourse. Earlier blogs have applied two of these discourse structures – Compare/ Contrast and General/ Particular (= Abstract /Concrete) to a GCSE paper in Science.

Hoey’s third structure (first in his book) is Problem/Solution. This has an important place in scientific thinking:

 PROBLEM/SOLUTION

 This structure comes into Science through considering the application of scientific knowledge to practical problems. This demands concrete not abstract language.Situation: People want a hot drink when there is no means of making one.

Problem: If they take the hot drink in a container, it tends to go cold.

Solution: Find a container which keeps the drink hot.

Outcome: People can have a hot drink when they want.

concrete words

This throws up another difficulty for the Science teacher: this is not a problem that keeps a teenager awake at nights. It is boring.

What makes science interesting?

It is obvious from the above that the good Science teacher tries to make the learners interested in Science by drawing on illustrations of the power of science to solve problems in the real world. This is expressed in concrete language which the learners have no problem with: it is the language of everyday life.

The layout of the “simpler” exam questions also tries to engage the learner by concentrating on the concrete examples. This is possibly a disservice, because it distracts from the real question, which is always abstract.