National Curriculum science

National curriculum science orders and initial teacher training... 

As previously mentioned, to meet Health and Safety requirements class teachers must understand and apply the principles of risk assessment and follow regular and approved practice. If pupils are to become responsible, safety conscious adults, they too need to learn how to assess and control risks. This is an essential requirement of the National Curriculum Science Orders (DFE, 1995) that require teachers to promote in pupils a sense of personal responsibility for health and safety in the context of science (see Figure 7.1). Furthermore, changes to teacher training courses (DFE Circular, 14/93) mean that schools now assume greater responsibility for the training of prospective teachers and therefore need to ensure that... 

It was clear that no one factor explained the differences in teachers responses to the in-service programme. Similarities and differences were then explored by cluster analysis using the pre-test and post-test cognitive scores, the overall attitude to effective science teaching scores, the measures of confidence in teaching science, and competence in putting National Curriculum science into practice. Only 33 of the... 

Astrid M.W. Bulte is a researcher in science edncation, being since 1999 connected to the Freudenthal Institnte for Science and Mathematics Education at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. In her current position she focuses her research on the development and evaluation of authentic practice-based science units for secondary education. She contributes to the education of student - science teachers, teaching students how to communicate science issues. She takes a leading position in national curriculum developments. After she obtained her Master degree in Chemical Engineering Science in 1989, she completed her doctoral thesis in 1994 in the same subject at the same university. From 1994 till 1999, she was a teacher of physics and chemistry in secondary education. 

The Third Edition includes more foundation work un formulae, the mole, calculations based on chemical equations and volumetric analysis for students starting A/AS Work from National Curriculum GCSE Science Double Award. 

It is worthwhile, in this context, to look at the procedure usually followed to modernise a science curriculum in the Netherlands and in many other countries with a national curriculum (Boersma, 2000 Fensham, 1998 Osborne, 2000 Roberts, 1995). This procedure can be characterised as a consensus oriented approach that is aimed at modernisation through a stepwise procedure, deleting some topics and adding others, until consensus is reached that sufficient modernisation has taken place. Because a more fundamental approach, aimed to solve the increasing underlying problems, is never attempted, this procedure inevitably leads to the preservation of a tradition (Osborne, 2000). 

Department for Education and Employment (1999). Science in the National Curriculum. London HMSO. 

The introduction to the Key Stage I and 2 programmes of study (often referred to as ScO) in the current version of Science in the National Curriculum (Department for Education, 1995) includes statements under the heading Health and Safety which apply across the whole of the science curriculum. 

Figure 7.1 References to safety in science in the National Curriculum 106 (1995)...

Donnelly, J. (2001). Contested terrain or unified project The nature of science in the National Curriculum for England and Wales. International Journal of Science Education, 23, 181-195. 

Aikenhead, G. S. (1997). Toward a First Nations cross-cultural science and technology curriculum. Science Education, 81(2), 217-238. 

QCA. (n.d.) Summary of the key findings from the 2001-2002 National Curriculum (NC) and Post-16 Science Monitoring Exercise. 

Dept of Educatitm Science The National Curriculum. Londcm, HMSO. 1987. 

Thirty-five years ago I was asked to lead - with Paul Black - a national curriculum development project in the UK. That was Nuffield Advanced Physics (Ogbom, 1971). I thought of it as a unique experience. Then, thirty years later, I was asked to do the same again, for the Institute of Physics ro]QC,t Advancing Physics (Ogbom Whitehouse, 2000 Ogbom Whitehouse, 2001). Rarely is anyone invited to make the same mistakes twice over. At the risk of over-personalising what I have to say, it is from this standpoint that I have chosen to look back over forty years of curriculum development in the sciences. 

Black, P.J. Harlen, W. (1990). Primary Science in the National Curriculum the SPACE... 

Confidence scales focused on delivering different aspects of the Primary Science National Curriculum required in English schools followed. This five-point scale measured confidence towards different science content, investigations and pedagogy and was also developed from Hargreaves et al. (1996). 

Education Standards, 1996 The National Curriculum of England - Science, 1999 DeBoer, 2000). These reforms refleet the overall tendency to encourage students to integrate into their lives what they learn in the science classroom and to replace traditional frontal instruction with instruction that is more student-centered and active (Linn, Songer Eylon, 1996 Bybee, 1997). 

NCTB (National Curriculum Mid Textbook Board) (2004). General science curriculum for grades IX andX. Dhaka Ministry of Education. 

Although there are major differences between national educational systems, some broad guidelines for successful science teacher professional development, culled from a review of recent curriculum development projects (Black Atkin, 1996, pp. 146-147 VanDen Akker, 1998, pp. 443 44) can be applied to a revised curricular provision in respect of the triplet relationship. The intention must be that the perception of new curricular provision by all teachers becomes congment with the intentions, content, and processes, of the formal curriculum. The guidelines suggest that... 

SUPPORT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION of new courses and laboratories in materials science is available through National Science Foundation programs in both the Division of Undergraduate Education and the Division of Materials Research. The Division of Undergraduate Education has separate programs targeting laboratory, curriculum, and faculty. 

Report on the National Science Foundation Undergraduate Curriculum Development Workshop on Materials (October 11-13, 1989) National Science Foundation Washington, DC, April, 1990. 

The revitalization of chemistry education has received much recent attention and taken many forms. Modes of teaching, textbooks, laboratory instruction— all aspects of the chemistry curriculum have undergone scrutiny for reform. A recent National Science Foundation report, Shaping the Future New Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology characterizes the nature of the most successful curricular and pedagogical improvements ... 

Mr. Kenkel has been the principal investigator for a series of curriculum development project grants funded by the National Science Foundation s Advanced Technological Education Program, from which four of his seven books evolved. He has also authored or coauthored four articles on the curriculum work in recent issues of the lournal of Chemical Education and has presented this work at more than twenty conferences since 1994. 

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