There has been a longstanding interest in the kinds of scientific knowledge that primary science learners must know and be able to do, which comprise the intellectual demands in this subject. These prescriptions chiefly take guidance from national curriculum documents, especially in the form of their learning outcomes (LO) or learning standards.…

The Middle Years Programme (MYP) is one of four programmes offered by the International Baccalaureate, together with the Diploma Programme, Career-related Programme and Primary Years Programme. This study investigated the difference in job satisfaction levels of MYP Coordinators based on the number of IB programmes delivered in the school. Schools…

The forecast for the first quarter of this century is that the issue of teaching science in the language to which the learner is most familiar will receive more attention in our quest to win more students for science. Over two-thirds of countries in Africa, Asia, and Europe have developed policies on the use of the mother tongue for teaching…

It is all too common, given the considerable day-to-day challenges facing those involved in education, to focus on the here and now rather than look further afield. The authors of this article have been fortunate enough to see "primary science" in a wide range of international settings, from Nigeria to Chile, North America and Canada,…

The 2010 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 46th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The "Digest" has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field…

The scene is a televised debate, and the question is how to improve the quality of the nation's teaching force. On one side of the argument, a university scholar argues for raising the professional requirements for entry into the classroom. On the other, a top government education official, waving a thick report from a national teaching commission…