Agreed - I've just finished teaching my first topic (Making Changes) and thought I'd had a boring time as Chemistry isn't my specialism, but now that I think about it the chapter was full of shallow disconnected facts and tidbits with none of the conceptual understanding I normally associate with science... Dull and boring.
mischief
· 2 years ago
Glad I'm not alone Anonymous. It's an embarrassment to the teaching profession.
Earl Grey TEA
· 2 years ago
Totally agree.. a complete pile of shite.. who in EDEXCEL wrote this crap???
neil
· 2 years ago
Couldn't agree more Andy. Science is being reduced to 'media science' and it's not just the doofs at EDEXCEL, AQA are turning A level physics into questions about ipods. http://www.wellingtongrey.net/articles/archive/2007-06-07--open-letter-aqa.html And what science stories do we see in the news? Endless dross about how 'boffins' have come up with the 'ideal formula' for dunking biscuits/love/parking a car/choosing a jumper. No wonder kids are beginning to think science is a doss subject.
Jools
· 2 years ago
Agreed #4!
I did GCE O level separate sciences - and it was fecking hard, classic science. It exercised the brain rather than bedding it down with a duvet & feeding it mental marshmallows. I could probably do the GCSE coursework now, this minute, with no revision!
mischief
· 2 years ago
Coursework!? Sorry dear, coursework has been deemed too open to fraud these days (and probably too hard for the kids, as tends to be the assumption these days) so it no longer exists.
Instead you could sit a multiple choice paper and get a GCSE. The first paper is a multichoice you see...
<a href="http://hydrocodone.99
· 2 years ago
RQxBZA The best blog you have!
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
I'm utterly fed up with this course as are my class.
We are an independent school - our SMT are considering opting for a more traditional style IGCSE instead. Unfortunately, our biology and chemistry departments want to stay with 360 and so we, as physicists, are stuck with it. It highlights perfectly the different approaches needed within the 3 disciplines and why they can't easily be lumped together as "science" for teaching purposes.
Science is being reduced to 'media science' and it's not just the doofs at EDEXCEL, AQA are turning A level physics into questions about ipods.
http://www.wellingtongrey.net/articles/archive/2007-06-07--open-letter-aqa.html
And what science stories do we see in the news? Endless dross about how 'boffins' have come up with the 'ideal formula' for dunking biscuits/love/parking a car/choosing a jumper. No wonder kids are beginning to think science is a doss subject.
I did GCE O level separate sciences - and it was fecking hard, classic science. It exercised the brain rather than bedding it down with a duvet & feeding it mental marshmallows. I could probably do the GCSE coursework now, this minute, with no revision!
Instead you could sit a multiple choice paper and get a GCSE. The first paper is a multichoice you see...
We are an independent school - our SMT are considering opting for a more traditional style IGCSE instead. Unfortunately, our biology and chemistry departments want to stay with 360 and so we, as physicists, are stuck with it. It highlights perfectly the different approaches needed within the 3 disciplines and why they can't easily be lumped together as "science" for teaching purposes.