ABSTRACT

This chapter considers how the science curriculum has changed and yet, at the same time, how many of the key issues still remain the same. The place of science in the school curriculum in the second decade of the twenty-first century needs to be seen within the context of measurement of school performance. With the introduction of the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) examination in 1965, especially the mode 3 version, science teachers in secondary schools were able to operate with a great deal of freedom in terms of accountability and control. Science in the curriculum can be considered to be made up of either three or perhaps more separate disciplines; on the other hand it can be seen as one coherent body of study. The rigidity of the National Curriculum, progress, achievement and the dominant view of the teacher as deliverer can be cited as mitigating factors acting as potential barriers to engaging science teaching.