Abstract
A REPORT with this title is the second part of the report published as an interim report in June 1944, by the Association of Women Science Teachers. Whereas the interim report was concerned with post-primary science from eleven to sixteen years, the second report completes the work by consideration of sixth-form science, part-time education in science, the training of teachers, administrative problems and sixteen special topics of a utilitarian nature and of special value and interest to those planning laboratories or running a science department. These two reports, published by John Murray at 1s. 3d. and 2s. net each, should be in the hands of all those whose minds are awake to the vast possibilities of science-teaching within the new Education Act. While stressing the need for less specialization in sixth-form work, the second report considers separately the general scientific education of all sixth-form pupils, the science specialists and those who may best be described as the general group of pupils in the sixth form. It is urged that all sixth-form pupils should meet together once a week to study current affairs, which includes topics of scientific interest as well as those of an economic and political aspect. Arts students will need a special science course of two periods a week, the counterpart of the special English course for the scientists. A suggested timetable for these various groups is given. The work provided in the county colleges, on a basis of one day a week attendance, should cater for pupils with varied aptitudes and attainments. A tentative scheme which recognizes the need for such a variety of science courses is given: flexibility is the keynote. The chapter on the training of teachers urges that good general science courses should be provided for suitable students in the training colleges and that sufficient time should be allowed in teaching practice to acquire a reasonable amount of technical skill. Graduates trained in the university training departments need opportunities for first-hand study of the children they are going to teach.
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Science in Post-Primary Education. Nature 157, 797–798 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157797c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157797c0