Science in schooling has for the first time been recently considered as a verified whole for the 10 or 12 of its compulsory years, rather than for a limited sector of schooling or for a particular group of students. This has also been occurring as part of a wider review and plan for the whole curriculum of schooling. A framework has been provided…

The content for the school science curriculum has always been an interplay or contest between the interests of a number of stakeholders, who have an interest in establishing it at a new level of schooling or in changing its current form. For most of its history, the interplay was dominated by the interests of academic scientists, but in the 1980s…

The globalized nature of modern society has generated a number of pressures that impact internationally on countries' policies and practices of science education. Among these pressures are key issues of health and environment confronting global science, global economic control through multi-national capitalism, comparative and competitive…

The PISA assessment instruments for students' scientific literacy in 2000, 2003, and 2006 have each consisted of units made up of a real world context involving Science and Technology, about which students are asked a number of cognitive and affective questions. This article discusses a number of issues from this use of S&T contexts in PISA…

Discusses three aspects of Australian science education: the curriculum for teaching school science; the structure of science in schooling; and the threat of isolation for school science education, in the context of international developments and directions over the last thirty years. (Author/JRH)

Providing science education for all students is a challenge for educators around the world. In an effort to help educators answer this challenge, earlier attempts at providing science for all are examined. (RM)

Analyzes two conflicting pieces of evidence--the high-ranking achievement of Australian primary students on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the knowledge that the quality of primary science education in Australia has been poor for some time. Reveals strengths and weaknesses in Australian elementary science…

Policy has been a much neglected area for research in science education. In their neglect of policy studies, researchers have maintained an ongoing naivete about the politics of science education. In doing so, they often overestimate the implications of their research findings about practice and ignore the interplay between the stakeholders beyond…

This essay examines the respective roles of books, teachers, and committees as sources and authorities of scientific information in school science education. Analyzes and compares recent curriculum development trends in the United States, England, and Australia, pointing out differences in perspective regarding authorities about scientific…

The interest in making science and technology more relevant and more accessible to all secondary students in Australia is discussed, focusing on some of the difficulties anticipated in taking such an approach. (MSE)

A sample of Australian Year-12 students (n=16) who participated in the TIMSS testing were interviewed immediately after the test about their responses to test items. Students had trouble relating TIMSS questions to generalized aspects of everyday life and to school science topics. Students seemed to place little value on performing well on the…

Seven dimensions for characterizing a curriculum in higher education are suggested. They include: prior knowledge; institutional response to prior knowledge; primary teaching mode; rates of learning; styles of learning; content openness; and assessment. This characterization is applied specifically to chemistry departments. (LBH)

A report on the status of environmental education (EE) in the Australian School Curriculum includes (1) a content analysis for EE in course study guides; (2) a discussion concerning environmental science and postcompulsory curriculum reform; (3) a summary of the study results; and (4) a list of challenges for future EE. (five references) (MCO)