Towards more creative school science

Abstract

Schoolmasters are not the only ones who know that they are on safe ground when they talk of fundamentals. Professors of engineering, almost as a reflex, claim a grounding in the basic principles of science as a first priority when admitting new students to their departments. It would be interesting to find out what various individuals meant by these terms but, far more important in my view, is the student's whole approach and attitude to his studies. Science teaching in schools and universities has tended to be almost wholly analytical, with the emphasis placed on the memorisation of a body of knowledge and the practice of experimental techniques. Students are rarely put in the situation of finding out for themselves; instead they go through the motions of repeating other people's experiments in the hope of getting the ‘right’ results. Small wonder that the cheating and cribbing of laboratory exercises, even at the university, is common practice. Dissatisfaction with current science syllabuses, both at ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels, has given rise to various attempts to improve upon them. The latest body of recommendations can be found in the Science and Education series of booklets published by the Association for Science Education. Also, the work of the Nuffield science teaching project is beginning to be felt in the schools.

Citation

HUTCHINGS, D. (1966), "Towards more creative school science", Education + Training, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 62-63. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb015678