THE STATE OF SCIENCE: If there is a crisis in student enrolment numbers in school science, where does that come from? Denis Goodrum asks whether a new perspective could revolutionise both teaching and learning.
In 1992, 94% of all Australian Year 12 students studied science. According to a soon-to-be-finalised report I’ve been working on, this figure has now shrunk to 50%. Such a dramatic fall in student numbers raises many questions about school science in our country.
Before answering the obvious questions – why the decline, how do we address it? – we maybe have to ask ourselves why science should be taught in schools at all.
The history of science is built upon questions resulting from observations and the gathering of evidence. The answers to these questions form the body of knowledge that is commonly called “science”.
This body of knowledge is continually changing, and in recent years it has been rapidly increasing. And the process of building this scientific knowledge is as important as the knowledge itself.
Evidence, not dogma
Why should students study science?
At a recent meeting I attended in the USA to discuss this question, a salty old miner listened to a range of learned reasons, then reacted with the following comment: “Students should learn science so they can guard against superstition and cruddy goods!”
That’s not a bad reason when you think about it. People will make better decisions about issues that affect them if those decisions are based on evidence and reason rather than superstition and dogma. The scientific processes of inquiry also result in technological advances and products that improve our quality of life.
It’s important for our graduating students to be scientifically literate. Scientifically literate people are interested in, and understand, the world around them. They are able to discuss issues rationally, are sceptical and questioning of the claims made by others, can identify and investigate questions and draw evidence-based conclusions. They can make informed decisions about the environment and their own health and well-being.
What went wrong?
For too many high-school students, science has become a litany of memorising uninteresting, difficult-to-understand ideas and attempting to answer numerous, confusing multiple-choice questions on exam papers. The joy and wonder of scientific inquiry has been lost.
A comprehensive review of Australian science education a decade ago painted a worrying picture of science learning, especially in secondary schools. Many students were disappointed with their high school science because what they were taught was neither relevant nor engaging.
Traditional chalk and talk teaching, copying notes and “cookbook” practical lessons, offered little challenge or excitement to students.
Somehow we need to ignite students' innate curiosity and engage them in interesting and relevant inquiry. The new Australian science curriculum provides a basis for change but it will not itself bring about the change that is required.
Doing better
Several organisations in Australia are developing strategies to tackle the issues.
With funding from the Australian government, the Australian Academy of Science has undertaken a secondary school program called Science By Doing.
Part of the program involves developing innovative curriculum units that use exciting digital learning segments. The first unit uses the context of water. We all know water is an important issue for Australia.
But the real world is brought to the classroom through engaging film clips in which scientists share their latest research and indigenous elders explain the cultural importance of water. Segments from entertaining ABC television programs are also used.
The course unit was trialed in Australian schools last year and students, on the whole, loved it. But more importantly they learned much about chemistry and the significance of the water cycle. They also learned how to tackle and discuss an important issue our community faces. In other words, the science they experienced was relevant.
While the fall in student interest in science is disturbing, there is hope. With relatively small funding – small when you consider the total education budget – we can develop further innovative curriculum units that capture students’ imagination and help them learn better.
Coupled with a well-researched professional learning approach the present situation can be well and truly turned around. Students can rediscover the joy of science.
This is the eighth part of The State of Science. To read the other instalments, follow the links below.
- Part One: Does Australia care about science?
- Part Two: What’s a scientist – a poker or a puffin?
- Part Three: Science can seem like madness, but there’s always a method
- Part Four: Express yourself, scientists – speaking plainly isn’t beneath you
- Part Five: Science is imperfect – you can be certain of that
- Part Six: Why do people reject science? Here’s why …
- Part Seven: When things don’t add up: statistics, maths and scientific fraud
- Part Nine: Critically important: the need for self-criticism in science
- Part Ten: Please, sirs, can we have some more? Aussie scientists need fuel, not gruel
- Part Eleven: Scientists and politicians – the same but different?
- Part Twelve: Tweed or speed … a day in the life of a modern scientist
- Part Thirteen: Selling science: the lure of the dark side
- Part Fourteen: Way off balance: science and the mainstream media
Join the conversation
Comments (8)
Geoff Edney
Science teacher (logged in via email @southernphone.com.au)
I was involved in the Science by Doing trial last year and found it an excellent program for delivering science to middle year’s students. Parts of it are very hands on, with a unit based around students creating their own experiments, which my students loved. The practical classes can be really engaging but without the theory they can become entertainment rather than education. Making the theory interesting to students is hard, but is an important part of teaching science.
Science is a way of thinking rather than the huge pile of facts that it appears to be for many students, it is about being curious and questioning the world around us. We need to encourage students to question their world and give them the tools to explore those questions.
Dennis Alexander
(logged in via LinkedIn)
Thanks for the clarification Geoff.
I'm now a supporter.
Kevin Orrman-Rossiter
(Philosophy of Science/Mind at Monash University)
Denis excellent succinct article. I support your points about getting back "the joy and wonder of scientific inquiry." I trust and hope that this education initiative succeeds. For a seemingly technologically advanced society we are, in the main, scientifically illiterate. It is not about more PhDs it is as you say about people being interested, understanding and being engaged in the world. I applaud an initiative that fans someones curiosity and engages them in interesting and relevant inquiry.
Dennis Alexander
(logged in via LinkedIn)
Sorry Dennis but your Science by Doing, as described, isn't. Films and talking heads will simply send secondary school students to sleep.
Why not have them build and stock a reasonable sized terrariaum with dirt, water, plants, bugs and instruments to measure and record the data on water vapour, CO2, CH3, soild water levels and so on so they can see the water and gas cycle in operation. And let them change the conditions so plants and bugs, etc drown, rust, cook, freeze, go mouldy and all the other things that go with the water cycle.
Primary school teachers (at least one that I know of, anyway) have been taking kids out to observe water ways and collect samples, count organisms, map ecologies for ages. If they are not as engaged in practical stuff in high school, they lose interest.
Marisa Gallicchio
scientist (logged in via email @gmail.com)
Science as a subject choice and career has fallen out of favour in Western societies. For instance, between 1976 to 2007, Year 12 participation rates in biology, chemistry and physics declined between 30-50% (Finkel et al, Teaching Science, 2009;55:28). Some of these 'lost' students have turned to psychology studies.
Australian students’ interest in science has also declined across Years 8-10 because science is seen as irrelevant, uninteresting, too hard or being too much to remember (Bennett et al, UK Science 2003 review; Goodrum et al, Dept. of ETYA research report, 2000; Elliot & Paige, Teaching Science, 2010;56:13). Students aspire to celebrity status and do not see scientists as role models. It seems "The X Factor" has captured their imaginations.
Other Side Science
(logged in via Twitter)
Great article. I think students also don't have a lot of scientists or people who are interested in science to look up to, which may cause them to be disinterested by science or see it as unimportant.
Australian culture, as a whole, seems to idolise sports and arts so heavily that there's no room for science (or anything else really). So I tend to think that science education shouldn't be aimed primarily at students but to people as a whole. To encourage people to engage in their curiosity to encourage scientific literacy. I think that so many people, even if they are very scicurious, lack the confidence to pursue those interests and if we can nudge them along the way, perhaps we can make science more popular as a topic of discussion
Michael Burrows
Mr (logged in via email @gmail.com)
From Year 8 to Year 12(1979) as students then as 'voting citizens since I and others have studied, voted, protested, made submissions on water quality, demise of the Murray, chloroflourocarbons, greenhouse gases, global warming.....to what end????
What level / quality of science education is instilled in our politicians?
Who else believes Liam Burrows should have won Australia's Got Amazing Talent?
terry lockwood
maths teacher (logged in via email @mcmyrtleford.catholic.edu.au)
I seem to remember that Yr 12 retention rates went from about 50 % to 85 % or so between 1991 and 1998. I suspect that those who now stay who otherwise might have left may not be the science types. This might entirely account for the percentage drop.
Having read Lindsay Tanner's 'Sideshow' where he describes the demise of serious political commentary in commercial media (and to some extent the ABC), I suspect the public's interest in serious science may become even more restricted to an elite sector, regrettably. In this age where opinion is more important than fact, style triumphs over substance, I cling grimly to optimism.
(After teaching Chemistry, Maths and Biology for years, I now find myself teaching Media at secondary school - is this telling?)