This work is a case-study in curriculum development in secondary school science education, especially senior science, in New South Wales
during the decade 1962-1972.
The situation became exceptionally complex and grew out of the
reorganisation of the secondary school curriculum recommended by the
so-called Wyndham Committee in 1957. A completely new concept of science
was offered to students of the State when biology was given increased
status beside the physical sciences - physics and chemistry. This
combination of material was examined in a very special way and Science
(in this broad sense) was also tied administratively to mathematics.
In 1966 a complicated syllabus was presented to students and
teachers with negligible advance preparation of teachers, no period of
familiarisation and no in-service support. Almost no explanation of
the rationale behind such a novel and untried scheme was offered.
The response of teachers and students was initially one of
stunned silence. Very quickly this developed into hostility to the
content, to its serious overloading and to the restriction of practical
work. Teachers, parents and some members of the Universities expressed
grave misgivings not only about the suitability of the course as a
preparation for tertiary studies, but also about the completely
unsatisfactory nature of the texts offered, about the examination method
adopted, and about the restrictions on the personal aspirations of
students for some degree of specialisation in their senior studies.
The Universities became very interested in the discussions then
appearing in the newspapers. Academics took sides either attacking or
defending the concepts underlying the course; their points of view
being based largely on the performance of the students at university
level.
The campaign for change began with a band of very vocal teachers
working through the Teachers' Federation. These were supported by
academics in promoting a series of public meetings. Parallel to this a
campaign spearheaded by Professor Alexander of Sydney University was
initiated in the Press. The defence of the new courses was taken up by
Professors Messel and Butler of the same University. To maintain the
impetus for the change in curriculum, the Secondary Schools Science
Association was formed by persons interested and very involved in the
curriculum.
Intricately woven into the pattern of discontent with and
strenuous defence of the Wyndham courses, among teachers there was a
groundswell of positive aspirations towards the understanding of and
clarification of the aims of science teaching in New South Wales.
This resulted in the preparation of a document which contained
guidelines for both teaching and curriculum development: it was
subsequently adopted by the Board of Senior School Studies.
This same Board was, by then, very much aware of the discontent
with the new courses and various modifications of them were considered.
Attempts to accommodate teacher, student and university aspirations
resulted in firstly the appointment of Curriculum Development Officers
to assist the Science Syllabus Committee and, parallel to this, a
willingness to permit trial of science courses which had been developed
for use in the United States of America and in other states of
Australia.
Once the decision was made in December, 1969 to permit the
trialling of other courses, a Committee was set up to evaluate these
courses as well as the existing Wyndham courses. This Committee reported
favourably on the new courses and after some false starts the Board of
Senior School Studies not only extended the trials of the new courses,
but in 1975 the old Wyndham courses were abolished and superseded.
Complications arising from the personalities involved, from people
with vested interests in certain educational theories, from the authors
of the specially published texts, from the Publishing Houses which were
to provide the new texts became very tangled indeed. Similar difficulties
were encountered by the Curriculum Development Officers who later
directed the adoption of the new courses to a conclusion satisfactory to
the Science Syllabus Committee and the Board of Senior School Studies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219267 |
| Date | January 1981 |
| Creators | Prentice, Anthony, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Anthony Prentice |
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