Brussels, 04/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - Eurydice, the European education information network has published, with the support of the European Parliament, a study on science teaching in European schools. The information, gathered by means of a common questionnaire, was distributed by branches of Eurydice and focuses on 2004/05 in primary and secondary schools. This is the first Europe-wide report on science teaching in 31 countries participating in the network (the 25 Member States, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein). The study was particularly interesting insofar as sciences are among the eight competencies determined to be key by the Commission in the definition of knowledge that all Europeans should possess in succeeding in professional and social life.
In this report, Eurydice is putting forward a balance sheet of existing regulation on science teaching in the different European, countries (teacher training, education programmes and student assessment). Three main characteristics have been underlined: 1) the importance of taking differences between girls and boys into account in regulation and initial teacher training: at a primary school level, teachers cover all subjects and science teaching is integrated (except in the Netherlands). At secondary school, teachers are most often specialists and teaching is divided into different subjects (biology, chemistry, physics etc). Most European countries (apart from the Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland and the Netherlands) regulate mainly through guidelines or qualification standards. Knowledge about study programmes and certain specific scientific competencies are almost always presented in the training programmes of future science teachers, whatever the teaching level. Three key elements were identified that enable pupils to develop a scientific approach: the taking into account of differences between girls and boys in terms of attitude and spheres of interest; the importance of the teacher's proficiency in carrying out complex experiments and the need to take pupils' spontaneous concepts and reasoning as a starting point (“common sense”). Eurydice illustrates that around ten educational systems have not included one or the other of these areas in their recommendations. The majority of countries require science training by the future teachers and teaching qualifications are required or recommended in two thirds of educational systems; 2) activities requiring a range of abilities in all different dimensions is integrated in study programmes in many countries: activities require complex knowledge and communications skills, which are more frequent at a secondary level (proposing and discussing experimental protocols, verifying a scientific law through experiment etc). The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) is recommended almost everywhere at secondary level for data input and presentation and for researching information; 3) standardised evaluation of science is an emerging practice: it exists in 14 educational systems and ins six of them, exclusively at secondary level. At both educational levels (primary and secondary), where standardised evaluation exists, it is always centred on the knowledge of scientific concepts and theories an very often encompasses practical skills and scientific reasoning. Debates or reforms relating to this kind of development are going on in approximately ten countries.
Commissioner for education, Jan Figel, indicated in the preface that “We need young scientists capable of innovation in a competitive knowledge-based society. Increasing recruitment in scientific and technical branches constitutes one of the objectives set out by education ministers in 2001 as part of their contribution to the Lisbon Process”. He added that the Eurydice study is available in English, French and German at: (http: //http://www.eurydice.org ) (il).