Decisions in the Science Department: Organization and Curriculum

This book, first published in 1981 by the Association for Science Education (ASE) and Schools Council, looks at the range of decisions that staff in science departments are required to make and the problems associated with making them.

This report was the output of the Science Education Project set up after the report Case studies of science education in a changing context, published in 1976 by the ASE. It aims to help science educators in schools with the increasingly complex task of running a science department and structuring its curriculum. The major sections in it are concerned with how science departments can evaluate their own effec­tiveness and make changes. The approach is a novel one in that resource material is provided to help science teachers identify and solve problems for themselves, and, by means of a model of planned change, to link theory with practice.

[b]Contents[/b]
Part I: Studies in decision-making for science education project
1. Studies in decision-making for science education project

Part II: A self-evaluation guide for science departments - organization and curriculum
2. Introduction
3. School decision-making and the science department
4. The science department - management style; departmental organization; department personnel; liaison with individuals and organizations outside the school
5. The science curriculum - a general review of the science curriculum; evaluation of individual courses

Part III: Planning and implementing change in the science department
6. Planned change - process and management
7. Introduction of a new science course at Palmer School: a case
study
8. A check-list for change agents