Reforms needed to entice students towards science

EFFORTS to improve student attitudes to science will remain unsuccessful unless reforms in teaching and out-of-school activities are increased, research has suggested.

Following the introduction of a revised Junior Certificate science curriculum in 2003, it had been expected that more students might take up the physical sciences of biology and chemistry for Leaving Certificate.

But the study by the Education Research Centre at St Patrick’s College in Dublin found that young people taking the new course are no more interested in either subject than those who studied the older syllabus.

The centre’s report examined the comparative performance of Irish students in science tests (Programme for International Student Assessment) conducted by the OECD in 2006. The OECD’s findings were that 15-year-olds here were well above average in science and ranked 14th highest out of 30 developed countries.

However, the report said it is a little surprising that Irish performance did not improve since the last PISA science test in 2000, given that far fewer topics covered in 2006 were not in the Junior Certificate syllabus.

Authors Eemer Eivers, Gerry Shiel and Emma Pybus suggested major efforts are needed to make science more appealing, but said these efforts should not be restricted to teachers whose ability to do so are constrained by textbook quality and the type of experiments which have to be done.