An Incentive To Cheat (Part 2)

Given the small but select bunch that read this blog, it was highly unlikely that it was read by Government ministers. Which is a pity because if they had read this they migt not have come up with this bright idea - financial incentives for schools to dramatically improve.

Schools Secretary Balls

This Government is going down the same path as Blair’s. Something that’s being done already is presented as if it’s a new policy, combined with initiatives that do not address the fundemental problems.

Twenty First Century Physics Meets Powerwatch

We return once again to the love of my professional life: Twenty First Century Science. In section P2 we study electromagnetic radiation which might seem like real science and indeed there are elements of it (once you get past the bit about testing sun-creams, that is). When we reach the activities relating to microwaves, though, my woodar starts going off.

Twenty First Century Chemistry

Remember making crystal gardens at school? Remember your introduction to the concept of saturated solutions by heating evaporating dishes full of salt solutions and watching the crystals form? How old were you when you did that? I’m prepared to bet that it was in the First Year, or Year 7 as they call it these days.

Creationism’s Trojan Horses

Back in the 1970s, Ben Bova wrote an editorial in Analog magazine regarding christian groups demanding “equal time” for creationism in American school science lessons. I wondered why he was worried about it, I didn’t believe for a moment that a nation as scientifically and technologically advanced as the USA would succumb to religious fundamentalism. Subsequent history shows how well I called that one.

Physics and Maths Teachers Needed!

The number of students taking physics A-level has been declining for twenty years. To counter this, the government has launched a campaign to recruit more physics and maths teachers. Lord Sainsbury proposes that physics in schools need not be taught by physics graduates, instead it could be taught by graduates in other subjects (he mentions material science) who do a conversion course.

At GCSE level, since most pupils take the double award General Science course, some of the modules are taught by non-specialists. How well does it work?

Twenty-First Century Science

In many ways the twenty first century has been a bit of a disappointment. The first rocket flight from Heathrow to Luna City has yet to be scheduled, there are no Belters mining the asteroids and I don’t commute in a flying car.

On the plus side, there have been robot probes throughout the the solar system, unimagined powerful personal computers, the internet and lots of other scientific and technological advances. So you’d think that the science education on offer to the youth of today would contain all kinds of goodies not available to us oldies when we were nobbut lads and lasses, wouldn’t you?

Think again.

No Faith in Faith

Over in Northern Ireland, education has always been segregated divided on faith lines. Anybody who has read British or Irish newspapers or watched British or Irish television over the last three decades know the marvelous consequences of that - Northern Ireland is second only to the Balkans in the European Religious Bigotry League Table.

An Incentive to Cheat

Most people have heard of “The Law of Unintended Consequences”, the notion that the consequences of your actions may be far different to those you intended. It is possible that one Government policy is encouraging teachers to give unethical levels of assistance to their students.

The Exam Chestnut

You know what I mean, we hear the same refrain every year when the GCSE, AS and A2 results come out. On the one side detractors say that exams must be getting too easy and on the other the Government and the Education Establishment say that the latest results are evidence of ever increasing standards. Who, if anyone, is right?