Science and Technology in the Classroom

summaries

English

In Britain, the range of new resources developed in the 1960s and early 70s for science teaching in secondary schools have achieved considerable success. However, there are still widespread criticisms by both students and teachers that school science curricula tend to be inward‐looking, divorced from human considerations and unrelated to the influences of technology. Evidence that attitudes to technology among secondary school teachers may be changing is provided by the existence of three new projects; two covering the 13‐16 age range and one the 16‐18. The three projects, although organized quite differently, have much in common. Thus each is developing new kinds of teaching materials which take into account not only the applications of science but also economic, social, ethical and aesthetic considerations as well. The introduction of these new resources will require teaching approaches some of which are at present unfamiliar to many students and some teachers. The development of technology in an educational context could well become a feature of the science curricula of our secondary schools in the 1980s.