Summary.157 science teachers from 39 schools in Scotland completed a 44‐item questionnaire on their perceptions of effective science teaching. An earlier study using a 106‐item questionnaire isolated eight factors which, it was suggested, were characteristic of styles of effective teaching among science teachers in England. The 44‐item version consisted of those items which, in the English study, had high loadings on the eight factors. There was a high correlation between the mean ratings given to individual items by the Scots and the English, though the English teachers placed greater emphasis on ‘pupilcentredness.’ However, none of the eight factors identified in the English study appeared in the factor analysis of the Scottish responses. The greater centralisation of education in Scotland may account for the lack of validity of the scale in the Scottish context, but doubt must be cast on the generality of the factor structure of