How should we teach science?

Michael West: A keen student no longer enjoying lessons

March 16, 2010 – 8:56 PM

Michael West is a Year 11 student who wrote to me following my recent article in The Times’ Eureka magazine. He has given me permission to reproduce the email here:

I am a student, aged 16, and in the process of taking my GCSE in Triple Science.

I have just finished reading your article in Eureka and I would just like to say how fantastic it is to read that we share the same views on the education system with regards the teaching of science.

Our class has found the last two years rather tedious as a large amount of what we have studied seemed to be of a lower level, in comparison, to Key Stage 3.

Why is it that the SATS were harder exams than the first few GCSE papers?

The science that we have covered in the past two years has been so badly composed that it has led to me no longer enjoy these lessons, which used to be exciting and encouraged my yearning for knowledge.

It causes me distress that this curriculum that is called “21st Century Science” seems to be a few steps behind with regards the level of information and the majority of exams being of the “Tick-Box” kind.

Many people will not have been enticed or excited into science in the way that I have been and, to be quite frank, with the past two years of GCSE I don’t blame them!

Thank you for speaking your mind and I do hope the curriculum is improved so that science can be presented to students in a way that shows them the enormous amount of money, excitement and development they can get out of this industry.

I eagerly look forward to taking Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Math for A-Level in the hope that I can become a doctor.

Alom | Posted in Contributors | Tagged GCSE student, science | No Comments

Prof. Edgar Jenkins: the search for a holy grail of science education

February 14, 2010 – 7:37 PM

Edgar Jenkins is Emeritus Professor at the School of Education of the University of Leeds

The history of the schooling of the three basic sciences is different. Chemistry and physics began to find a place in a few public and grammar schools in the mid-nineteenth century after a generation of opposition from classicists. Had the ‘battle’ been won in the 1830s or 1840s, it is geology that would have secured a place in such schools as then existed.

The form and content of school physics and chemistry were shaped by the then form and content of the disciplines themselves. Chemistry was essentially analytical and preparative. Physics as a subject was cobbled together form developments in electricity and magnetism, heat, light and sound, and mechanics and the properties of matter. Biology was rarely taught except to senior pupils intending to study medicine and was little more than a composite of botany and zoology.

There are many elements to the eventual accommodation, including gender and social class, designing and building teaching laboratories, laboratory work and examinations.

The School Regulations of 1904 and the School Certificate Examinations introduced in 1919 set the pattern that largely prevailed until after the second world war. Major changes came in the 1960s with modernizing of content, ‘new’ approaches to teaching and examining, the advent of comprehensive schooling and science for all and much more!

In sum, the social and political history of school science is fascinating, characterized by unresolved tensions and the search for some kind of Holy Grail!

Alom | Posted in Contributors | Tagged curriculum, history, holy grail | No Comments

Michael de Podesta: Lunatics have taken over the asylum

January 23, 2010 – 4:59 PM

Dr Michael de Podesta is a physicist and Science Ambassador at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory

Last week I attended a meeting organised by QCDA. They were apparently ‘seeking input’ from working physicists into the revised Physics GCSE curriculum. However it soon became clear that no such input was genuinely desired.

Staff from the QCDA asserted that ‘Physics was no harder than any other subject’, specifically mentioning Religious Studies as a subject of equal difficulty. They also asserted that acknowledged problems with the Physics GCSE curriculum were not the responsibility of the QCDA but were ‘caused by physicists’ - I never understood quite how. I summarised the meeting for my colleagues by saying that the lunatics had taken over the asylum.

Physics is harder than some other subjects. It requires practical and theoretical skills, a good memory, conceptual flexibility and mathematical insight. This combination of skills and knowledge is what makes Physics both valuable and difficult. However it is clear that QCDA intend to create a GCSE exam for Physics which actively discriminates against the people that physicists think are good at physics.

The mechanism for this involves publisher/awarding body conglomerates submitting schemes of work which minimally satisfy QCDA guidelines. Despite the input of many talented and creative individuals in schools and awarding bodies alike, this structure is guaranteed to lower standards. It is a race to the bottom: the awarding body which can produce the minimum specification with the easiest examinations will win ‘market share’ from their competitors and exam pass rates will ‘rise’. This is madness.

Alom | Posted in Contributors | Tagged dumbing down, GCSE criteria, QCDA | 1077 Comments

The aims of a good science education

October 25, 2009 – 9:36 AM

Mike, Stuart and Alom spent a lovely day yesterday bashing out what they think should be the aims of a good science education. Here are their initial thoughts:

We believe that it is a right (and an expectation) of our society that every child receive knowledge which will help them remain fed, fit and healthy, warm, dry and secure and to be aware of their multiple-dependencies on the environment so that they do not damage the very thing that ensures their continued existence (and that of every other living thing on the planet). We should also share with them knowledge that helps them to philosophically consider their own place in the Universe.

Alom | Posted in Contributors | Tagged aims, curriculum, objectives, science education | No Comments

What is science?

October 25, 2009 – 9:29 AM

It seems like an obvious question, but perhaps one that we need to address head on when teaching science - what, exactly, is science?

Philosophers and scientists have debated the question through history, often violently disagreeing with each other. We’ve arrived at our own consensus view over at the howscience wiki:

Science is a never-ending and unique process of producing tested, evidence-based explanations for the full range of natural phenomena that we observe to occur around us.

Alom | Posted in Contributors | Tagged defiinition of science | No Comments

Stuart Billington: teachers excluded from important decision making processes

August 15, 2009 – 5:00 AM

Stuart Billington is a Head of Physics

Teachers are not aware of opportunities to contribute nationally and positively to science education policies, curricula and assessments. Having spent three years trying to impact on this debate and having talked to various people, I’m left with the dejected opinion that this is deliberate.

Education really does seem to be such a political cherry that government doesn’t seem to want to involve anyone beyond there own encampment. Indeed, Daniel Sandford-Smith (the IoP’s Education Manager for Schools and Colleges, at the time) remarked to me in an email a couple of years ago that he was surprised that I was of the opinion that teachers’ views should have any input into the curriculum at all! Add to this the time-constraints on teachers during term-time (and their running for the hills in holiday time) and the ever-dimishing set of specialist teachers in the physical sciences and you’re left with a bleak outlook indeed.

Alom | Posted in Contributors | Tagged teachers excluded | 1108 Comments

Mike Bell: a manifesto

August 13, 2009 – 10:22 PM

Mike Bell is a Science teacher in St Ives, Cambs

Looking back over the decline of science education over 20 years, I think we have to conclude that the only solution is for practicing science teachers to form a new organisation and put forward well argued, evidence-based proposals directly. For some reason the professionals who should have represented us - IoP, RSC, ASE unions etc, - have all sat on their hands and allowed the current situation to develop.

The manifesto below is a distillation of ideas from various discussions and blogs. I do not put it forward as a “done deal”, but more as a discussion point. If such an organisation is created we could use our developed “manifesto” as the basis for creating the sort of science course we want.

Alom | Posted in Contributors | Tagged manifesto mike bell | 1150 Comments

Bernard Dawson: the one size fits all approach leads to a ridiculous compromise for the most able, and for the integrity of the subjects themselves

August 6, 2009 – 5:00 AM

Bernard Dawson is a Head of Science

I can only agree with the comments already expressed, that the one size fits all approach leads to a ridiculous compromise for the most able, and for the integrity of the subjects themselves. I am Head of Science at a top school in England, and as a chemist I have viewed with bewilderment the recent alteration of double science.

When QCA came out with their programmes of study for KS3 a lot of emphasis was put on continuity and progression. This got thrown away with the introduction of core science and additional science. After KS3, the obvious thing to do on educational grounds is to teach atomic structure properly, the periodic table properly, and bonding properly. This is the only way to give students extended practice with and confidence at, manipulating chemical formulae and following that, equations. Yet all those topics are really left for additional science in year 11 under the new scheme.

Alom | Posted in Contributors | 1088 Comments

Emma Collins: students feel let down by exams

August 5, 2009 – 5:00 AM

Emma Collins is a science teacher at a comprehensive school in London

Science is one of the most important subjects children can learn these days, specifically because everything we have relies on science. The UK is losing scientists at an alarming rate not just because they leave the country but because fewer and fewer students are continuing with science at higher levels.

Looking at the science curriculum I have had to teach, the new GCSE courses are nowhere near good enough to support students’ interest and imagination. In year 10, the science is dumbed down and does not challenge them scientifically. The exams challenge them in their understranding of ethics and english and therefore there is no real test for the scientific knowledge that they have acquired.

Alom | Posted in Contributors | Tagged students let down by exams | 1056 Comments

Roz Fresson: a steady decline over past 10 years in students' ability to work independently

August 4, 2009 – 5:00 AM

Roz Fresson teaches A-level Biology at a sixth form college.

Point1: We have steadily seen a decline, over the past 10 years or so (since Curriculum 2000) in the ability of our students to work independently. (This is a generalisation as there are always excellent students.) I have often wondered if this is due to the pressure on schools to spoon feed their pupils with endless easy worksheets and ‘fun’ activities meant to stimulate them to think, but sadly not to work - by themsleves, concentrating and focusing on a tricky topic.

We have a Taster Day in July for the just finished kids to come and try out their chosen subjects to see if they will really like them after all. They come from schools all over our region and vary tremendously in terms of their science experience - from schools that only offer the Applied Science GCSE (which it NOT suitable preparation for A level Science courses!) to those with triple sciences and Core and Additional. They were very happy playing with enzymes and classification but the crunch always seemed to come when they had to do calculations or apply themselves to a problem - just as previous writers have noted.

Alom | Posted in Contributors | Tagged sixth form college class size | 1099 Comments