Press Releases
New report highlights the need for more specialist physics teachers
PR23(06)
11 August 2006
The Institute of Physics endorsed the findings of a report published today* which shows while more 16 year olds than ever are doing physics, either as a separate GCSE subject or as part of the science GCSE, the number of physics A-level students continues to fall.
Professor Peter Main, head of science and education at the Institute of Physics said "As the authors of the report, Professor Alan Smithers and Dr Pamela Robinson point out, the decline in the uptake of physics has a very strong correlation with the introduction of the national curriculum, which, ironically, was partly designed to increase participation. Whilst the Institute agrees with this correlation we also recognise that the change of the curriculum has had a number of other effects, not least that the existence of a general science GCSE allowed government to loose sight of the need to have specialist teachers in each of the sciences."
“The Institute believes that the key to reversing the decline is to ensure that physics, whether it is taught as a discrete subject or as part of a general science qualification, is taught by appropriately qualified and enthusiastic teachers. As the report shows, the decline in physics A-level numbers does correlate with introduction of the national curriculum. However the introduction of science as a single subject within the curriculum also masked a decline in the number of specialist physics teachers and a loss of identity for individual science subjects.”
“The government has announced some measures to improve the knowledge of existing teachers but does not seem to be tackling the recruitment issue. Teacher recruitment targets should be set for the individual sciences, with physicists rather than biologists or chemists teaching physics. The Institute believes that the option of teaching physics and maths together rather than physics and biology would be more appealing to a physicist intending to teach and should be explored by the government.”
*The report, Physics in schools and universities: patterns and policies, by Professor Alan Smithers and Dr Pamela Robinson from the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham is published on 11 August 2006.
Notes to Editors
For further information:
Helen MacBain, Press Officer,
Institute of Physics, 76 Portland Place, London. W1B 1NT
Telephone +44 (0)20 7470 4815 or +44 (0)7946 321473.
E-mail:helen.macbain@iop.org