British Education

[Al-Indunisiy]

I found this about British education curriculum:

British Secondary School / GCSE Physics is in Trouble
by Matthew K. Tabor on June 10, 2007


Most Western nations struggle with providing effective, efficient education, but Britain has given up and decided to throw away any semblance of curricular standards in physics.

Wellington Grey wrote an open letter regarding a decline in seriousness on the GCSE, Britain’s certification exam for students ~14-16. He bemoans the invasion of purposeless content and questions, the proliferation of pseudoscience and the oddly political.

I am a physics teacher. Or, at least I used to be. My subject is still called physics. My pupils will sit an exam and earn a GCSE in physics, but that exam doesn't cover anything I recognize as physics. Over the past year the UK Department for Education and the AQA board changed the subject. They took the physics out of physics and replaced it with something else, something nebulous and ill defined. I worry about this change. I worry about my pupils, I worry about the state of science education in this country, and I worry about the future physics teachers.” if there will be any.

In short, he wants his subject back.

There is a teacher shortage in this country, but if a physicist asked my advice on becoming a teacher, I would have to say: don't. Don't unless you want to watch a subject you love dismantled.

I am a young and once-enthusiastic physics teacher. I despair at what I am forced to teach. I have potentially thirty years of lessons to give, but I didn't sign up for this.” and the business world still calls. There I won't have to endure the pain of trying to animate a crippled subject. The rigors of physics have been torn down and replaced with impotent science media studies.

I beg of the government and the AQA board, please, give me back my subject and let me do my job.

He has petitioned the AQA, the body that administers the GCSEs, as well as making this letter public. The response has been overwhelming – we’ll see if the AQA, or anyone else for that matter, gives this subject the attention it deserves.

Check out his latest web-comic, a test that pokes a bit of fun at the new curriculum. The rub? Question #3 is real and taken directly from the AQA-approved textbook for GCSE-level physics:

3) Imagine a taxi firm uses an ambulance radio channel by mistake. Write a short story about a mix-up that happens when the taxi firm uses the ambulance radio channel.

If that’s British physics, I won’t expect to see the Queen’s own playing cricket on the moon in my lifetime. It does bode well, however, for disaffected Onion employees – you may have unwittingly prepared yourself for a future career in British education.

I wonder what this guy thinks about it.

[Al-Indunisiy]

To British citizens: is this true?

[Santoku]

To British citizens: is this true?

Wouldn't surprise me!

We have a generation of teachers who cannot bbe bothered to learn how to teach their subjects and have been imbued with the notion it is wrong to have a child fail at anything. Thus bye bye competitive sports - there must be a loser, people fail hard subjects therefore the subjects have to be dumbed down so nobody can fail. Insistng on academical excellence is now elitism and therefore immoral.

Thank the stars my education was before this crap.

[Life_Is_Short]

Imagine a taxi firm uses an ambulance radio channel by mistake. Write a short story about a mix-up that happens when the taxi firm uses the ambulance radio channel.

lol, I never knew physics could be this fun.

Physics at GCSE is very easy and this is why many students struggle to even pass this subject at A-level, making it the least favorite.

At my sixth form there are only two physics classes and six classes for every other subject. Infact, they're thinking of converting it into an arts sixth form because of increasing number of students choosing arts subject over traditional subjects such as maths, physics, biology and chemistry.

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[Al-Indunisiy]

Infact, they're thinking of converting it into an arts sixth form because of increasing number of students choosing arts subject over traditional subjects such as maths, physics, biology and chemistry.

Such a shame.

[Trumble]

Thank the stars my education was before this crap.

Ditto.

IMHO the problem at GCSE level compared with the old 'O Levels' is the attempted breadth of the curriculum to the detriment of depth; pupils are just studying too many subjects. That's much the same at A level as well, leading to entering University woefully unprepared, undergraduate studies being adjusted to compensate and ultimately to degrees so worthless to either employers or for postgraduate research it's necessary to do a taught Masters just to catch up.

[Supreme]

I took my GCSE in physics two years ago (and got an A*, thank you very much). My physics teacher was better than my other two science teachers, she was very intelligent and knew all there was to know about physics. But the syllabus was terrible. Boring and terrible. Moments, mirrors, lenses, centre of mass, electromagnetism... the only thing that interested me was astronomy, and we spent countless lessons deliberately going off-topic and off course to discuss interesting areas in physics.

[Trumble]

I took my GCSE in physics two years ago (and got an A*, thank you very much). My physics teacher was better than my other two science teachers, she was very intelligent and knew all there was to know about physics. But the syllabus was terrible. Boring and terrible. Moments, mirrors, lenses, centre of mass, electromagnetism... the only thing that interested me was astronomy, and we spent countless lessons deliberately going off-topic and off course to discuss interesting areas in physics.

Doesn't sound like it has changed much in thirty years or so! To be fair, I think a lot of the trouble in that regard is that most 'interesting' physics demands a lot more math than most students have at GCSE level to be taught meaningfully.

[Supreme]

Doesn't sound like it has changed much in thirty years or so! To be fair, I think a lot of the trouble in that regard is that most 'interesting' physics demands a lot more math than most students have at GCSE level to be taught meaningfully.

That's true. And I'm just not mathematically inclined. Hence, why I am far better at biology than I am at physics.