How should we teach Science?

"In general, Science teachers find themselves being too focused on getting their students through the external GCSE exams and not focused enough on simply delivering a high quality science education. What (and to some extent how) they teach is dictated almost entirely by the specification."

"The current national science GCSE specifications and/or examinations are failing to adequately challenge, inspire or even assess our more able pupils."

"Despite mathematics being an integral part of vast areas of science, it is currently almost entirely absent from science education at GCSE level. Science education would be improved by the reintroduction of basic mathematical techniques into both the specifications and the examinations."

"An entire GCSE (Core Science) is too much overlap between students intending further study in the sciences and those being prepared to become scientifically-literate citizens. Having the same statutory science criteria for all pupils, regardless of route beyond GCSE, fails all learners by ineffectively preparing any of them for their next step."

"The KS3/KS4 divide necessitates the offering a 2-GCSE science qualification. This is a compromise for all learners, needlessly over-educating some (at the expense of other learning) and under-educating others. However, this divide (and the qualification) is unnecessary, as nothing happens at the transition (no SATs, no option to drop science, no change of school, ...). A 5-year, single approach to the science curriculum would be a more effective use of time for all learners."

"Teachers' contracts could be modified to allow (and encourage) a proportion of the contracted hours to be used for curriculum development opportunities at a national level, so that such contributions by teachers become the norm rather than the exception. Current science education policy, specifications, assessments and resources would be much improved if their authorship teams included more practicing science teachers."

"GCSE qualifications would be more robust if they were examined and awarded by a single, centralised, independent body. Current conflicts of interest would be removed if this body was separate from the specification-providers and also if the specification-providers were prevented from having commercial links with educational publishers. This would also help to make science education more stable and to improve the quality of educational resources."