Ben
I must confess  to being too dispirited to not comment but also to not look
up the proposals. However a country gets the scientists it deserves ..yes
the quote is for free ...so conscience made me look it up. First impressions
are this dumbing down is getting dumber.

After 7 years going into schools with trained engineers to give
presentations i found
1 schools teaching 3 separate science subjects yielded best student response
in terms of them wishing to embrace a science career, visit a science
establishment or opt for science work experience.
2 schools offering only combined science had students uninterested in
science and unused to the idea of there being 3 sciences. one teacher asked
us not to use the word physics as they never mentioned which areas were
which so it was pointless to advise taking a level physics if you wish to do
a career in engineering.

these schools also had science teachers with eg a degree in chemistry now
teaching biology and freely admitting they knew nothing about it
So will these proposals improve science education/
not in my experience. I imply no criticism of new young teachers formed
under the current system but i would advise smarten up rather than further
dumbing down.
Barbara
Barbara Wood-Kaczmar
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tel/fax 01279 724371
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ben Johnson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 11:02 PM
Subject: Re: [PSCI-COM] New pilot science curriculum in the UK


> i have just looked through this article and am, at the
> moment, too tired and dispirited to be bothered to respond.
> not too long ago, a posting like this would have caused an
> exciting little flurry of exchanges.  none of them changed
> the world, but at least we had a chance to sharpen our
> faculties on something substantive.
>
> i have spent quite a bit of time in schools recently;
> talking to pupils and teachers about the issues touched on
> (danced over?) in this article.  there are some very
> profound issues at stake here, and it seems to me that we
> may be seeing the first really concentrated conflict
> between the pre and post jenkin report paradigms breaking
> out.  im sure that many people on this list have stronger
> views than mine on this issue, and are better positioned to
> make the arguments either way.
>
> i hope that some of those individuals will start posting in
> the wake of this piece.  the innovation in science
> education being considered here is nothing less than an
> attempt to redefine (or possibly clarify?) the relationship
> between science as a set of corporate practices and its
> audiences. (i use the words corporate and audience in their
> broadest possible sense - look them up if you're not sure).
> this is not some trivial tinkering with the system, and in
> a national curriculum driven environment may have some
> profound consequences.
>
> what do we think about this?  are we surprised? delighted?
> depressed?  i would really like to hear from the list on
> this one.
>
> ----------------------------------------
> Ben Johnson
> Graphic Science
> Faculty of Applied Sciences
> University of the West of England
> Coldharbour Lane
> Bristol
> BS16 1QY
>
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> Phone +44 (0)117 344 3756
> Mobile 07813 580 397
> http://www.uwe.ac.uk/fas/graphicscience
>
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