Should science be taught in primary schools?

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jack Kerr

Jack Kerr, Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Leicester, was chairman of the Consultative Committee of the Nuffield Junior Science Project and President of the Association for Science Education in 1977.

Elizabeth Engel

Elizabeth Engel has taught biology and was the evaluator for a health education project in primary schools. Their article introduces our science theme by providing a rigorous appraisal of past experience and current policy. The questions they raise and the tentative answers they provide are all important, though not all that comforting. Various orthodoxies are examined and found wanting a major shift of policy regarding primary science is implied.