Dick Sblog

Check out the recently published Rocard Report on Science Education.

Michell Rocard was invited by the European Commission to set up a group of experts to look at the state of science eduction in the light of the EU-wide decline in young peoples’ interest in the study of key sciences and mathematics.  Their starting point was that this declining interest has largely resulted from the way science is taught in schools and this became the group’s main focus.

A quick summary of their findings:

• “A reversal of school science-teaching pedagogy from mainly deductive to inquiry-
  based methods provides the means to increase interest in science.
• Renewed school’s science-teaching pedagogy based on IBSE (inquiry based science education) provides increased opportunities for cooperation between actors in the formal and informal arenas.
• Teachers are key players in the renewal of science education. Among other methods, being part of a network allows them to improve the quality of their teaching and supports their motivation”. Their recommendations specifically state that teacher networks should be promoted and supported.

Seems to me that an extension of their recognition of the value of teacher networks and of IBSE (with its opportunities for collaboration across formal/informal ‘arenas’) would be a recognition of the opportunity to extend this into distributed project working – collaboration and inquiry across boundaries.