Investigations by Order: Policy, curriculum and science teachers' work under the Education Reform Act

This book provides the reader with a detailed account and analysis of the creation and implementation of the Attainment Target relating to the exploration of science ('Sc1') in the National Curriculum for England and Wales. It is the result of a research project which examined public and private documents, attended meetings of examination groups and other bodies suoh as ASE and SEAC, and conducted interviews with members of the science education community and those with involvement in writing and interpreting the science Orders themselves. There are a number of themes here. These include the way in which Sc1 was dominated right from the start by the needs of assessment, the influences on approaches to Sc1 in practice, the problems in implementing it, and its philosophical basis. Although these themes are to some extent independent, the book effectively 'tells the story' of Sc1, a story in which the themes inevitably become intertwined. Following an introduction in chapter 1, chapter 2 gives an historical account of how the 1991 Sc1 Order came about. This is followed in chapters 3 and 4 by an examination of the Implementation of the Order and the influences on schools as they tackled the teaching and assessing of Sc1. Chapter 5 gives an insight into the way that teachers in the schools used by the study viewed Sc1, and provides some interesting quotes taken from the many interviews conducted. Chapters 6 and 7 provide a critique of Sc1 itself, in terms of its philosophical and pedagogical conceptualization and in terms of technical aspects of its assessment. The study is drawn together in chapter 8. The book is probably best read from cover to cover although it would still be possible to do justice to it by dipping into chapters. But it is not for the National Curriculum neophyte - the reader will need a good deal of prior understanding of the National Curriculum and its assessment to get the most out of it. There have been concerns over Sc1 for those in science education throughout the existence of the National Curriculum, even if these concerns have not always been commonly shared. Although the original, 17 Attainment Target version of the National Curriculum contained (within the final Attainment Target) the seeds of a radical, social constructivist view of the conduct of science, Sc1 was nevertheless grounded in a narrow view of science in which "...investigations appeared to lead directly to conclusions, subject only to problems of 'unreliability' or 'invalidity' in data collection" (p38). Why should anyone wish to portray the methods of science in such an impoverished way? The authors suggest that one reason for this lies in the need to explain the success of science, and argue that methods provide one way of doing this. The fact that studies in the history, philosophy and sociology of science show very clearly that such an approach cannot provide a meaningful account of the practice of science, means that '...Sc1, both in its text and, still more strongly, in the practice to which it led in schools, must be judged both deficient and, what is more serious, positively misleading' (p179). As a result 'the model of science offered by Sc1 and its associated proposals are as unappealing as they are inadequate' (p181). If Sc1 itself is problematic, the history of its implementation is also littered with problems. Using a range of evidence, the authors build a picture of a piece of radical curriculum development promoted by a small core of interested parties, many but not all of whom were science educators. This small core saw investigatory activity as an essential part of the science curriculum inasmuch as it reflected 'real science', and were prepared to defend it as being simply a development of practice as it already existed in schools. For Jeff Thompson, Chair of the Science Working group ...science has a methodology of its own and Sc1 is that methodology' (p70); while for Paul Black, Chair of TGAT (the group that produced the assessment framework of the National Curriculum), Sc1 was 'outrageously ambitious...but right' (p71). Presenting Sc1 as a vehicle for radical curricular change, the authors argue that assessment was the engine driving the vehicle, producing a pact between assessment and curriculum change. 'For Sc1 and its promoters, the pact with assessment was to prove Faustian' (p78). The middle part of the book contains a comprehensive account of the unhappy history of Sc1 in the period from l992 to 1995. The conflicting guidance issued to teachers from SEAC through the examination groups is all here, together with the background to the requirement which meant that assessment of investigations had to be carried out in the context of whole investigations. In addition to other sources, there is much evidence cited from the interviews with the teachers who were directly concerned with the teaching and assessment of Sc1 in schools. For these people the changes in the curriculum and its assessment were of vital interest, and the lack of useful information coming from the curricuium authorities was a major difficulty. In this context, one teacher's response to the researcher's question 'Where do you get your sources of information from on Sc1?' was particularly eloquent, the reply being simply 'Brian' (p123). For anyone concerned to know more about the state of Sc1 in our schools, this book is essential reading. Its scope is greater than this, however, since it provides such a useful and usable account of a major piece of curriculum change with all its attendant problems, and suggests some questions which the architects and apologists for Sc1 may not find easy to answer. I look forward to using it with my Master's students.