Abstract
THE new regulations for the matriculation examination of the University of London provide that on and after next January all candidates must present themselves for examination in the rudiments of physics and chemistry included in a syllabus under the head of “General Elementary Science.” Following the “stream of tendency” of science teaching at the present time, the examiners announce in a note prefixed to their syllabus that the subjects “will be treated wherever possible from an experimental point of view. Candidates will be expected to have performed or witnessed simple experiments in illustration of the subjects mentioned in this syllabus.” By making this announcement, the University of London has shown its intention to encourage the introduction and extension of practical methods of science teaching into our secondary schools; and there can be no doubt that if the examiners insist upon, the possession of knowledge gained by demonstration and experience, instead of the transient information acquired by reading, their action will be the means of greatly improving the character of the scientific instruction given in the smaller secondary schools. Hitherto, many schools of this character have trained candidates for matriculation without showing them a single scientific experiment; the new curriculum will, however, make this state of things impossible, and will therefore be the means of increasing the efficiency of secondary schools.
General Elementary Science.
Edited by William Briggs Pp. viii + 390. (London: W. B. Clive.)
Elementary General Science.
By A. T. Simmons Lionel M. Jones Pp. viii + 328. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1898.)
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General Elementary Science Elementary General Science. Nature 58, 123 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/058123a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/058123a0