New trends in physics teaching, v.4; The ... - unesdoc - Unesco

New Trends in Physics Teaching IV
By 1968, the GAST Teacher Thining Sub-committee began to call for a change in science
teacher education. ‘The general opinion expressed was that the development of the right attitude
to science teaching at the elementary level was more important than teaching of science content
to the prospective teachers’ [ 1, p. 241. The NTCC Science Panel was to see that this opinion was
implemented by ‘instituting special science methods, in the Training Colleges’ [ 1, p. 241. It
became a general view that ‘the training college science course needed general revision to bring
it into line with current thinking in science education; making it an activity-orientated programme,
stressing the right attitude to change and ensuring a proper integration of the whole programme
of science education’ [ 1, p. 241. Unesco was requested to help organize a workshop to discuss
these issues in detail.
The history of secondary school science is slightly different. Science teaching was based on the
syllabus of the British University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate which examined
students at this level up to the 1960s. In the early 1960s, GAST Science Panels wrote syllabuses
for the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) which took over the examination of cience
subjects at the ‘0’(ordinary) level of the General Certificate of Education (GCE) in 1960.
Interest in Integrated Science teaching was also developing. By 1966, it was government
policy that all pupils should be taught General Science up to School Certificate Level. A government
review of the education system of Ghana in 1967 recommended that much greater benefit
is to be derived from the study, at this level, of science as an integrated whole, composed of
interdependent parts, than from the study of one or more of these parts in isolation. At GAST
meetings Integrated Science was discussed with enthusiasm. A unanimous agreement on introducing
Integrated Science in the lower forms was arrived at, but opinion was divided as to
whether it should be taught at the upper levels. Dissatisfaction with the teaching of science at
‘0’ level was revealed - it did not help pupils to develop critical thinking nor was the science
relevant to the society in which the pupils lived. A curriculum committee was accordingly set up
to revise ‘0’ level syllabuses and to formulate aims and objectives for science teaching so that
decisions could be made on the form, content and the approach of the course. These aims and
objectives were circulated to science teachers and their reactions asked for. Whilst it was a general
opinion that integrated science should be introduced in the early years, about half the respondents
also advocated the teaching of Integrated Science in the upper classes. The problem foreseen,
of course, was the lack of teachers trained to teach Integrated Science.
Thus the three inter-related strands in science education in Ghana, namely elementary, teacher
training college and secondary science teaching, had experienced a growing trend of discontent
with the existing state of science teaching. The meeting point of these strands was the Takoradi
Workshop. The events, described above, prepared the ground for a revolution in thinking about
the nature of science and in the attitude to science teaching in Ghana.
The Takoradi Workshop identified two problem areas which needed action: (a) the content
of science and the image of science as portrayed by teaching which was irrelevant to the situation
of the pupils; and (b) the teacher’s attitude to the teaching of science.
The following recommendations were accordingly made:
1. Publicity and Public Support. Communication was to be established between Science
Educators and members of the Ghanaian community. Reports of the Workshop were to be sent
to policy makers, GAST members, heads of educational institutions, voluntary agents and
scientists, and feed-back was expected. Science education was thus portrayed as a social activity
which is the responsibility of the entire community. Science is neither learnt nor taught in a
vacuum.
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