The evaluation of a school science syllabus through objectives and attitudes

The School Science Curriculum Review (SSCR), sponsored in part by the Department of Education and Science itself, was established in the United Kingdom in September 1981 at a cost of £1 m. Its brief was, amongst other things ‘to provide a framework of science courses ... that will [provide] an appropriate education for all young people growing up in an advanced scientific and technological society’. The units for development work are groups of practising science teachers organized on a ‘periphery to centre’ model.

The study reported here is an evaluation of a science syllabus which is claimed by the authors to be typical of many such syllabuses in use in UK secondary schools today. It finds confusion between course objectives and the teacher's perceptions of what they see as the important objectives of science education. It is suggested that there are reasons to doubt the efficacy of the course in terms of its effect on children's attitudes to science.

The objectives model of curriculum development has had only marginal impact in the United Kingdom. The argument is put that whilst it is clear from a theoretical standpoint that content of a syllabus should be consequent upon derived objectives, and this is explicitly recognized by the hierarchy of the SSCR, such an approach will not come easily to practising science teachers. There is a distinct possibility that too strict an adherence to the ‘periphery to centre’ model propounded by the review will result in continued curriculum intransigence.