Better Science: Making It Happen

One of the aims of this publication, published by Heinemann and the Association for Science Education, was to describe the principal aims of the Secondary Science Curriculum Review (SSCR), and to convey the major outcomes of the development work undertaken during the life of the review in the early 1980s.

Another aim was to explore the process of change in the secondary school curriculum which was seen to be a very complex activity, involving a range of agents and agencies. So the SSCR decided to produce this publication to both point to the complexity of innovation and also to offer some ideas for achieving change.

The booklet focused on the members of the governing body of a secondary school. The characters portrayed there were fictitious, but the issues raised within the governors' meetings, consequent on a review of the school science department, were real. By describing the range of interests vested in the members of a typical governing body of the day, it was intended that the narrative style employed would stimulate thought in the minds of readers and suggest potential activities for groups engaged in initial and post experience training. Thus the booklet presented a picture of science education in a comprehensive school in the era preceding the introduction of the National Curriculum.

Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 The Science Review at Sevenelms School
2 The Sevenelms governors' views
3 What is the Secondary Science Curriculum Review?
4 The Sevenelms School Science Action Plan
5 Some conclusions
Glossary
Appendix I: Science policy statements from two local education authorities
Appendix II: A summary of the other publications in the Better Science series