What?
We are currently collecting Science teachers' opinions of Science education in England and Wales. If you have a free 30 minutes, please complete our survey in the Opinion section of our Forum — and then ask all of your Science colleagues to do the same! This area of the forum is open to non-members and so anyone can comment. (And if you're not a member, why not? Joining is very quick and completely free!)
Why?
In 2002 the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee reported on "Science Education from 14 to 19". Summarising their findings they concluded that:
"This course aims to provide a general science education for all and, at the same time, to inspire and prepare some for science post-16. It does neither of these well. It may not be possible for a single course to fulfil both these needs… Those who choose to continue with science post-16 often do so in spite of their experiences of GCSE rather than because of them. Primary responsibility should lie with the awarding bodies; the approach to assessment at GCSE discourages good science from being taught in schools… Teachers are the key to developing and delivering a vibrant science curriculum."
Changes made since then were supposed to solve these issues, but have they? We feel that there continue to be unaddressed serious and fundamental flaws with current science education in England and Wales and are anxious to find out if other currently practicing Science teachers feel the same way.
Share
In order to get as representative an opinion as possible, we ask that you tell all of your Science colleagues about this survey, especially those at other schools. This survey is written by teachers for teachers and the raw replies to this survey will be available here on this site for all to read for themselves.