Curriculum change in science teaching: the need to listen to teachers

Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 2, Issue 1, Article 1 (Jun., 2001)
Amanda Berry and John Loughran
Curriculum change in science teaching: the need to listen to teachers

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Background
This paper is designed to illustrate some of the ways in which science teachers in schools interpreted and responded to a major curriculum change in Science. The data is drawn from a small sample of science teachers (n = 26) who were interviewed about the implementation of the Science Curriculum Standards Framework (CSF, 1995; 2000). These teachers were science coordinators, junior school, middle school and senior science teachers from both independent (private) and state schools. Some of these science teachers were involved in networks and clusters that were centrally organised in an attempt to support teachers through the implementation period, hence their ideas and views were often shaped not only by the document itself but also through their interactions with colleagues - both in their own schools and other schools.
We have organised the paper using the themes which emerged through our interviews and an important frame for these views, which needs to be at the forefront of the reader's mind, is that these themes are as a result of the teachers' perceptions of the CSF. It is also clear throughout the literature associated with change (Fullan, 1993; 1999; Senge, 1990) that perceptions are crucial in the curriculum reform process because, for many teachers, their perception is also their reality and these perceptions need to be acknowledged and appropriately challenged if the curriculum intents are to be achieved.
The structure of this paper is such that it sets out a brief of the history associated with the development of the Science CSF, followed by examples of science teaching, learning and assessment issues created for teachers through these changes and then closes with specific examples of the tensions and dilemmas of practice that teachers attempted to manage. As the introduction of the CSF comprised approximately 6 years, this research is a timely reminder (yet again) of the need for curriculum writers to pay close attention to the insights and knowledge of the end users of these documents, - the science teachers.