Science teaching in schools in Europe

"In a few countries, the position and curricular organisation of science is at the heart of the debate... In Malta, the debate is concerned with how science should be offered in lower secondary education. Should it be taught as an integrated subject or in separate subjects and, in the latter case, should two or three subjects be identified?"

Information on science teaching at primary and general secondary education was the focus of a recent Eurydice publication, entitled Science Teaching In Schools In Europe, prepared with the support of the European Commission.

The publication includes an overview of the regulations on teacher education, school curricula and pupil evaluation and on scientific education research in 30 EU member states.

"In Malta, the National Minimum Curriculum (1999) includes science as one of its core subjects, but science is not included in the subjects currently tested at the end of primary education. Debate about such inclusion is ongoing but no timescale has been set," the survey states.

Improving the effectiveness of science teaching and its appeal is a major challenge because it involves providing everyone with a sufficient stock of general scientific knowledge so they may play their full part as citizens in a technologically advanced society, as well as encouraging more young people to pursue scientific careers, the publication states.

In most member states, at primary level, teachers are generalists and science teaching is integrated, while at secondary level, teachers are specialists in most cases and subjects - such as biology, chemistry and physics - are taught separately. Malta requires teachers to possess experience in education research, a requirement shared by the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia. Less than half of all the countries have regulations recommending that teacher trainers should have experience as teachers.

The publication states that in all countries except Malta, the work of student teachers during their practical placement and/or final "on-the-job" qualifying (or induction) phase is monitored by school staff members. "In Malta, this supervision is carried out by members of the faculty of education at the University of Malta, where student teachers are trained. However, the latter also get informal support from schools during their placement."

The survey states that as recommended by research, the curricula in most countries refer to the contextual aspects of science, that is history and contemporary social issues.

"Activities requiring a range of abilities, complex knowledge and communication skills are more common at secondary level: proposing and discussing experimental protocols, verifying a scientific law through experiment, and communicating results obtained when researching information.

"Furthermore, the use of ICT is recommended almost everywhere at secondary level for data input and presentation and for researching information. The use of ICT for simulations is less often recommended. However, education research underlines its usefulness in helping pupils make a link between theory and experiment.

"In a large number of countries, science curricula are the focus of reform or debate centred on organisation, content and methodology. The introduction of educational standards (key competencies) is being discussed in some countries," the publication states.

Furthermore, the content of initial science teacher education is regulated at central or top level in most European countries.

Almost everywhere, knowledge of curricula and certain science-related competencies are included in the training programme for intending teachers at all educational levels.

Visit www.eurydice.org for more information.