CHEMICAL EDUCATION : PROBLEMS OF INNOVATION H. F. Halliwell, B.Sc., F.R.I.C. School of Chemical Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk, NOR 85 C A review usually implies the question: where have we got to? Science educa- tion, in fact education in general and certainly chemical education is in a state of reorganization; there has been an upsurge of detailed exhortation and advice and a rush to follow new banners. The more pertinent question is, therefore, where are we going? An even still more pertinent question is on what basis and on what principles can we judge the wisdom or folly of pro- posed targets. At this stage of development, therefore, it is to be expected that a review will raise more questions than it answers. Chemical education has still many of the characteristics of a cottage industry.In fact, the very phrase ‘chemical education’ suggests a parochial attitude. Education through chemistry, to change the emphasis, is part of education through science, which is but one aspect of the overall education of an individual. With the establish- ment in many countries, and the development in many others, of a policy of education for all children, the fundamental question is: what are we trying to do both with, and for the oncoming generation? The words w+th and for indicate the two areas of responsibility: to the well-being of the community, and to the well-being of an individual. This article, therefore, attempts to indicate a general pattern of innovation in chemical education so that in administration, argument, action or selection, there is a framework for judgement.Much that will be said here is not new. What is recent, however, is the markedly increasing awareness of the urgency to think, before we go much further, along some such lines as those which follow. ANALYSIS OF INNOVATION Thinking about the processes involved has, over the last two decades, crystal- lized into what might be called the interacting four A’s of curriculum reform (Fig. 1). Seen in this perspective any curriculum reform (and therefore that of chemical education at any level) is a continuous and not a once-for-all process. It will be a continuous process, partly because appropriate assessment will indicate whether the suggested lines of action are effective or as effective as alternative lines, partly because changes in the political outlook of a country may require changes in attitudes on the part of its population and, therefore, a change in the specification of aims, partly because the machinery of commu- nication develops new techniques, and partly because more is known about the process of learning.If these factors are themselves slow to alter, as on the whole they have been up to the middle of this century, then the rate of desir- able adjustment can be so slow as to make the establishment of its machinery of apparently little importance. If, however, any or all of these factors change ,yctlli well 205 planning and i rn pl erne n tat ion of specification of use of valid and reliable AIMS- in the light of feedback -ASSESSMENT Fig.I. The processes of curriculum reform rapidly as they have been tending to do in the last two decades, not to set up machinery for considered adjustment might lead to ill-advised expediency. It is for this reason that developing countries, which were confronted with the need to enlarge the scope of their science education, have been recently urged to establish a permanent, but not static, steering committee.1 However, a recent directory of reform groups concerned with science education lists 30 countries in which revision of science curricula is taking place2 and the sub-set of developing countries is seen not to be identical with the sub-set of non- technologically advanced countries.Indeed, as might be expected, it is the countries who have had the longer period for reflection and the greater resources for research that have been actively involved in analysis and implementation of reform. The establishment of such advisory bodies as the British Committee on Chemical Education jointly by the Royal Society and the Royal Institute of Chemistry in England, the Committee on the Teaching of Chemistry in the Scottish Universities at the Department of Chemistry, University of Dundee, the Advisory Council on Chemical Education by the American Chemical Society, an Education Committee by IUPAC, another by the Chemical Society of Japan and yet another under the Directorate for Scientific Affairs by OECD is an example of action in the fields of chemical education itself following more widespread awareness of the need for the pooling and consideration of ideas and intentions.Articles in such journals as School Science Review in the UK or the Journal of Chemical Education in the USA show that advice and exhortation to look in wider perspective and more critically at what is current practice are by no means recent phenomena. What is recent is the proliferation of nostrums, the greater and wider influence of persuasion, the increased opportunity for exchange of enthusiasms and apprehensions, and a more widely felt sense of 206 RIC Reviews urgency. What is wanted in a rapidly changing situation like this is not only an analysis of the various aspects of curriculum reform so that strategy and tactics can be planned with more confidence in their outcome, but also the clarification of the basis and principles of judgement in these areas, so that wisdom has at least the edge on folly in a matter which affects the future well- being of a community.The simple analysis of reform into four areas of interacting activity referred to above has already shown promise for meeting these needs. We follow this analysis further. Aims Certain broad patterns of change can be detected in the newer proposals. One such pattern, a change of perspective common at least implicitly to many schemes, is a swing from the transmission of a static past with a stress on acquisition of knowledge, to a preparation for a changing future with a stress on informed adaptability. Both these educational perspectives require a corpus of information: in the former it is extensive and tends to be the main if not exclusive goal for the majority; in the latter it is less extensive and is sub- servient to the main objective, namely an ability to scan such a corpus imaginatively and critically in order to cope with that which is novel.Another change, in a way an important outcome of the former, is that chemistry, in its own right, along with physics and biology is an important vehicle of education for that great majority who are not going to be chemists, and not an irrelevant even if interesting peep at the prerogative of back-room boys. This change, new perhaps only in its more vigorous implementation, has had two results. In a way it has inverted the structure of purpose in a curri- culum.In most established systems of education, that of the elite was agreed and the not-so-elite were confronted with a watered-down version. This seems to be changing to a scheme which is designed to serve a dual purpose, i.e. to be suitable for the majority (specialist and non-specialist alike) and at the same time to form an adequate basis for that important minority whose particular interests will be catered for at a more advanced stage. A second result is that it has raised sharply the question of the pertinence of much of the detail of a chemistry course. Of what value is the knowledge of the preparation of a pure dry sulphur dioxide specimen to a boy who becomes a bus driver in Bolton or a shopkeeper in Singapore or a business man in Los Angeles ? Questioning the pertinence does not deny that an acceptable positive answer exists; it only stresses that in the process of reappraisal pertinence to the individual and to the community are important criteria of selection and rejection, which must be satisfied and-in these days of assessment by pupils and students-seen to be satisfied.Yet another change is based on a reappraisal of what is suitable for a developing and immature mind. Pupils of 13 and 14 years are increasingly being confronted with ideas and facts once regarded as appropriate to under- graduate study, and chemistry is not alone in this : modern mathematics offers even more startling examples.In chemistry electronic structure, enthalpy and free energy changes, entropy, kinetics and mechanisms of reactions, pH notation and radioactivity are increasingly appearing in studies intended for Halliwell 207 15 or 16 year old pupils in many parts of the world. Bruner from his studies of children learning mathematics points to the feasibility of such programmes when he writes : ‘We begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development. I t is a bold hypothesis and an essential one in thinking about the nature of a curriculum. No evidence exists to contradict it; considerable evidence is being amassed that supports it’.3 There is undoubtedly a growing opinion that children‘s ability is under-rated.It is likewise true that the pupils are living in an age when commonplace and uninformed talk involves ideas not thought of in their teachers’ youth-a fact that was startlingly brought home to the reviewer on hearing the following skipping rhyme being chanted by eight year old girls in a playground of a primary school in Newcastle-under- Lyme: ‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust If the atoms don’t get us the hydrogen must.’ The skill to translate the sophisticated into a form suitable for the immature has been shown by individuals for a long time. The Royal Institution has been one notable centre for such. There has been a brilliant line from Faraday’s History of a Candle through Tyndall’s Heat; a mode of motion and, in recent years, the many examples of Bragg’s skill to Porter’s BBC talks, ‘The Laws of Disorder : an introduction to chemical change and thermodynamics’.* There have also been innumerable, unheard of, but personally remembered, teachers all over the world who have this skill.I t is noticeable, however, that what has been done for some time is acceptable : it is using this skill in new areas that is sometimes suspect. Joule’s work raised considerable doubts and discussion in the Royal Society in mid-19th century yet it is now an area of study accepted as suitable for all moderately bright 15 year old pupils, but the introduction of entropy or wave-mechanics, relativity or indeterminancy, polarity of mole- cules or i.r.spectroscopy engenders resistance. The question still remains : What is educationally desirable? What are we trying to do with and for the oncoming generation? Probably the most important pattern of change to be seen in the new proposals is the growing insistence on specification of aims and objectives in terms of final pupil behaviour, and the close link of these objectives with the procedure of assessment. The focus of attention is on what we want pupils to be able to do-intellectually and manipulatively-and this focusing arises from the claim that only by what people do (through speaking, writing or performing operations) can we judge whether our aims have been achieved. This approach to the specification of aims is not new: it is over 30 years since it was suggested by Tyler.5 What is new, again, is its widespread adoption and the impact it has had on curriculum reform. Its adoption is encouraged by the claim that it offers a basis for the analysis and classification of many of our problems.On the other hand it has met with opposition chiefly on the grounds that it leads to emphasis on trivialities, that it leads to a dehumanizing use of judgement, that it is unacceptable to plan how pupils should behave, and that the important goals of education cannot be defined- much less measured. In these early days no doubt this argument will continue, but also there is no doubt that the principle of stating educational objectives in operational terms, elaborated and vitalized by the outcome of the delibera- RIC Reviews 208 tions sparked off by the American Psychological Association in Boston in 1948 and disseminated by Bloom and his colleagues,6 has given guidance to many, including chief examiners of public examinations.728 This guidance has come from clearer statements on the one hand about what the inclusion of chemistry in a curriculum is supposed to do, and on the other about what an examination is supposed to find out. It is reasonable to suggest that these two should at least be consistent if not fairly closely matched. When this is accomplished there is then available a basis for selection and rejection of proposed class-room and lecture-room action. Aims and assessment are closely linked.Thus it is fairly frequently said that we want pupils to understand chemistry, not just to memorize what they have been told. But as Bloom points out, it is not until we know what it is that a boy ‘who understands’ can do, which a boy who does not understand cannot, or what it is that the former does not do, which the latter does, that we know how to detect ‘understanding’ and therefore have a clear idea of what we are trying to achieve. If a teacher says that his aim is to show pupils that organic chemis- try can be seen as a coherent whole by looking at it from the point of view of mechanism then it is clear what he intends to do-to explain a point of view: the pupils do not come into it. But if as a result of his putting forward a point of view he wants the pupils to be able to do something they could not do before, it would be well if this intended operational result were clearly stated.Both efficacy in terms of communication and worthiness in terms of educa- tional policy can then be scrutinized. Let us look at what this principle of reform has begun to do and can do in chemical education. We shall then be in a better position to accept or reject it, although we must also bear in mind that its application is still in its infancy. The stating of a general principle is one matter: its consistent and wise use is quite another. Politicians, administrators and educationalists, those responsible for educational policies of a country or at least of influencing them, have on the whole stated their aims in general terms.These will have to be translated into behavioural terms appropriate for a stated group in a stated social environ- ment, and the translation checked for its validity. This i s a difficult exercise. As yet it has only been seriously attempted in a few cases, because much attention has been given by innovators to the reappraisal of the structure of their subject (the medium of education) rather than to critical analysis of its impact on the younger generation (the purpose of education). There is an important distinction, on the one hand, between reappraisals of the structure, emphases and content of a course and the analyses of its sociological impact on the other. The former try to bring the subject into line with late 20th century thinking but fail to answer, or only peripherally and implicitly deal with, the question raised by Nyholm in the Marchon lecture: ‘Education in science-for whom and for what p u r p ~ s e ? ’ ~ They are more profitably considered under the heading of action.The aims of science teaching in some countries have been stated in near behavioural terms. The spectrum is broad as we can see from a few examples. Writing in 1959 of science in Soviet schools, Yantsov says, ‘It is the function of the secondary school to train the younger generation for active and con- Halliwell 209 scious participation in the social life of the country and in the production of material goods.’lO At the Conference on the Teaching of Science in Schools, organized by the Commonwealth Education Liaison Committee in 1963, the Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Western Nigeria, said ; ‘Science should be taught in developing countries in such a way as to make it serve as an instrument for removing those evils (over-population, poverty, malnutrition and chronic ill-health)’, and went on to say that science teaching ‘should aim at stimulating interest in agricultural pursuits, inculcating the dignity of manual labour and familiarizing young people with the technical equipment employed in agriculture’.ll In Ceylon, the National Commission on Education in 1961 stated that the intention of the new programmes in science teaching was to make the population scientifically literate.At home we find in 1960 a major lead from the Ministry of Education saying: ‘There is little need to plead for more attention to science; everything around us demands it. . . . (If scientific knowledge is limited in the main to specialists) we risk becoming a well-fed rabble ordered about by experts, subjects of a new despotism. We cannot do without specialists; if we are not to become their slaves, we must see to it that scientific knowledge and the ability to reason scientifically are widespread. . . . Our future community will need not only more specialists able to maintain the machines of the automatic age, but also more citizens capable of imaginative and creative thinking within the context of science.’12 The professional association of most of those teaching science in the UK has also given a lead: ‘The effects of science on human life and thought have become so great, and are potentially so much greater, that those who have no understanding of them, and of the science which has produced them, cannot be considered properly educated or truly cultured and therefore are unable to participate fully in the life of their time.Present “scientific illiteracy” is, in part, due to a lack of factual knowledge, but is much more the result of a lack of under- standing of the basic nature and aims of science. . . . . . . Science should be recognized-and taught-as a major human activity which explores the realm of human experience, maps it methodically but also imaginatively, and by disciplined speculation, creates a coherent system of knowledge.’l3 The analysis advocated here is already indicating that there are three different areas in which to exercise one’s judgement.Do we agree with the general intentions ? This is an area of political-sociological value-judgement. Are the actions planned to achieve these aims ? This is a matter of professional pedagogic judgement. Are the actions taken efficacious? This is no longer a matter of subjective opinion. Progress in devising valid and reliable instru- ments of assessment is increasingly making the answer a matter of objective testing. We are not concerned here with agreement with or disagreement about political-sociological aims, but with the possibility of a more rational pro- cedure of reform through application of the principle of stating these aims RIC Reviews 210 operationally in terms of final pupil-student behaviour. Let us take for brief dissection a proposal where the principle was applied.14 (1) The starting point was the two statements given in the preceding paragraph.These were first briefly restated from a learner’s angle: ‘pupils should gain an understanding that lasts throughout their lives of what it means to approach a problem scientifically. They should be taught to be aware of what scientists are doing and can do’. (2) What are the characteristics of this aim ? It seemed that there were four : the learning should have a lasting effect; it should develop judgement as to whether a problem is a scientific one or not; it should develop the know-how, personal understanding and judgement necessary for tackling a problem scientifically; it should develop an awareness that science, as Richardson pointed is both a process and a product and one product is power over the environment-power to do good or to do evil.(3) It is still necessary to translate these characteristics further into pupil behaviour. Judgement involves an ability to sort phenomena into examples and non-examples of what is being assessed, an ability in the face of a novel situation to scan quickly an acquired corpus of information for that which is pertinent, and the imagination to suggest a plan of action. Such considerations finally led to the following requirements : (i) after finishing formal education a pupil should continue to show the abilities listed below ; (ii) during the course a pupil should show satisfaction at being involved; (iii) at the end of the course a pupil should show an ability to discriminate between problems to which a scientific approach is appropriate and those to which it is not, recall information and experience, devise schemes for solving practical problems, use and classify given information, apply previous knowledge to new situations, interpret information with evidence of judgement and assessment, report and comment selectively and effectively, relate the subject to other school subjects and to life in society.Clearly, objective ( i ) can only be reliably checked by a careful follow-up.Objective (ii) can only be detected, subjectively at present, by the teacher concerned. The others are all abilities which can now be assessed with increasing validity and reliability. In what way does this brief dissection indicate the possibility of a more rational procedure of reform? It has yet to be shown whether what has been said helps to clarify what should be done. None the less, by temporarily isolating this part of the problem it has made a more manageable argument possible. It is a helpful step to follow Kerrl6 and distinguish the aims from the objectives, using the former word for the general target and the latter for the statement of operational criteria. We can then ask the authors of the aims whether the translation into objectives is acceptable or not (we might even suggest that both aims and objectives, or at least some indication of the latter, are promulgated at the same time).If the answer is no, then there is doubtful profit in discussion until the authors have performed an analysis which they find acceptable. It is of great importance to note that in teaching, as in all human interaction, there are many aspects too subtle to be starkly stated in words. On the whole these are in the realm of action rather than intention. Halliwell 21 1 Teaching is an art. Nevertheless, there are also areas of education, seen as a great national industry, where logical thinking and purposive planning should be predominant. Perhaps ability to discriminate is pertinent to educationalists as well as to pupils.We leave this question of aims to turn to the action required to achieve them. Here the play becomes very open and varied, involves many more participants, but is still not without guiding principles now that objectives have been stated. ACTION This area of reform involves not only pupils and teachers, but also admini- strators, professional chemists, the designers, manufacturers and suppliers of equipment and audio-visual aids, architects, authors and publishing firms, those responsible for the training of future teachers, examiners, and those who have to accept the products of an educational system. Vast though the area is it can be broken down into sub-areas and one such analysis sees four important subjects raised : (i) the merits of a concurrent or subsequent structure in science education ; (ii) the place of chemistry in science education; (iii) adequate allowance for local and national variations of needs; (iv) selection and rejection of suggested experience for pupils and students.The first perhaps seems a matter of little concern to us in the UK: our system of concurrency of treatment of the sciences seems well established- even if the coverage is still often limited. Yet it is not the only scheme and that common in the high schools of the USA tends to concentrate work in a specific science into a single year. One can detect a mutual influence now altering these two schemes. It seems to be brought about by the breakdown of compart- mentalism in the sciences as well as by the realization of virtues in the other party’s programme.Whether a final synthesis takes place whereby there is a subsequent structure consisting of a fairly long period of integrated science followed by a shorter period of separated sciences, which is in turn followed by another period of integrated science followed by separated studies, is a matter of extrapolation with all its advantages and dangers. The growth of science in the primary sch001,~7J* the resurgence of general ~ c i e n c e * ~ J ~ and the emergence of combined physical sciences for the 16-18 age groupz1 seem, however, to be pointing that way. The question, however, is a sharper one for developing countries since they are likely to have previously come under the influence of one scheme or the other and may be looking at the possibility of a change, being at the same time saddled with texts written specifically for one of the schemes.Whatever plan is adopted two principles must be borne in mind. The first is that the pupil or student often meets the same ideas and the same phenomena in his separated subjects but often has to do something quite different with them. The unit of mass is the kilogram-the student of mech- anics is concerned with the movement of bodies, and whether the body consists of iron or copper is usually irrelevant in deciding what he has to do with his XIC Reviews 212 information. To the shopkeeper or to a person making up a solution the unit of mass is the kilogram (or soon will be for the former) because he needs to achieve reproducibility in repetition.For the chemist the amount of a substance is expressed as a mole and weighing is used to count out comparable numbers of particles. A chemist is often much closer in purpose to a bank cashier who by weighing compares the number of pennies in a bag with the number of pennies in 2 standard bag: the latent heat of evaporation of materials is of more significance to him in kcallmole than in kcallgram. Sometimes the difference in purpose in different sciences leads to a reciprocal perspective. In traditional physics a pupil pays much attention to mass per unit volume: in chemistry he is more interested in the volume per mole because the roominess of stuff is significant from the point of view of structure and he wants to compare volumes.Again in physics he is concerned with electrical resistance, in chemistry with electrical conductance. If a pupil is to use ideas with discrimination it would seem reasonable for him to use them in different contexts. This of course is looking-from the pupil’s operational point of view-at the frequent exhortation to see that certain concepts, i.e. structure, energy, electric charge, rates of change and conservation, are common to many sciences. The move towards a closer link between science subjects comes not only from the way the sciences themselves are changing. The second principle that must be borne in mind (whether it is a concurrent or a subsequent structure of science teaching which is chosen) is that a pupil’s ability to use ideas, his mode of using them, and his rate of operational assimilation of new patterns, vary with the length and the nature of his experience.There is nothing new there, unless it is the stress on using rather than knowing, but a critical application of the principle is none the less a safeguard in the otherwise very desirable exchange of schemes between countries. Nothing new, but it sometimes shows an unexpected twist especially in a pupil’s use of words. Words summarize and help to sharpen experience. ‘Element’, or ‘equilibrium’, for example, will be used differently by 13 or 14 year olds and 18 year olds and this fact will influence our attitude to ‘defini- tions’.An eight year old will know whether to apply the label ‘plant’ or the label ‘animal’ to a dog or a geranium, but could not ‘define’ a plant. An 18 year old may feel confident of achieving this. An undergraduate or research worker would find himself in a similar position to the eight year old, but for different reasons. The recent disquiet about whether we know when to use the word ‘dead’ underlines this fact that the problem of categories and definitions is very much with us. This growing up through confidence in certainty to a confidence in the face of uncertainty is a growth pattern about which we need to know more. Nevertheless, attention to operational objectives helps us. A pupil first using the words ‘rate of a reaction’ will not ‘understand’ them as we do, in the sense that he cannot do as much with the idea as we after many more years of experience can.To expect otherwise would not be reasonable. The question is: does he need to use the idea within the context of his immediate problem, and will he continue to use it in a planned but more and more varied and detailed way. Understanding develops by use. Ours did. Sometimes it is forgotten that theirs must. What has been said up to now is common to education through any science. Halliwell 213 The second question raised in this analysis touches us more specifically: the place of chemistry in science education. Nyholm’s question, for whom and for what purpose, must be asked both in the context of chemistry and in the context of the ability of the pupils.For the UK, educational statistics show that for every 100 children likely to be learning science at the age of 14, only 15 will take 0-level chemistry one or two years later, only six will go on to take A-level chemistry and only one goes on with formal learning of chemistry after leaving school. If chemistry in school is merely undertaken to provide a means of selection to go on to chemistry in higher education, it seems a waste of youthful endeavour for a large majority. If it is designed to encourage more of the high-ability group to go on with chemistry, present trends suggest it is not successful. In fact there is no evidence that chemists either at the technician or research level could not be trained equally effectively if they started almost from scratch after they left school-as indeed happens in architecture, engineering and law.That chemistry is a traditional science subject, that it is the pride and joy of many teachers, these alone will not justify its place in science education in a changing and critical educational world. Already a sharp difference is showing between the attention given to and the time spent on chemistry in schemes for children of average and below-average ability and schemes for the average and above-average. This is seen in a UK context by comparing the small fraction of time given to chemistry in the Scheme for Young School Leaverslg and the time suggested for those likely to stay 0 1 1 .~ ~ 9 ~ ~ Two problems arise: what is the coverage appropriate to these two groups; what is the justification of the great increase in chemistry for the second group over that for the first? Plans for coverage are not left so open to personal exhortation if it is realized that the crux of the question is not the extent of coverage, but the appropriate- ness of the selected areas for achievement of operational aims. Both extremes of treatment stress that the areas selected are intended to bring about an awareness of the ‘alchemy of stuff’ (an awareness presumably detected by the ability to change selected raw materials into desired products), and an aware- ness of man’s technological mastery over raw materials (presumably detected by a competence to talk, with some practical know-how, about the importance of selected areas of chemical industry-including food production-to society).The difference between the extremes lies in the introduction of the more able to the atom-molecule-ion theory as a unifying ‘explanatory’ concept. The educational justification for inclusion of chemistry is thus twofold : for all to differing degrees it can establish, through personal commitment with the transformation of material, a personal involvement with a major basis of society in a way not possible in any other field of experience; to the more capable it uniquely offers an area for the development of critical, integrating speculation about the observable in terms of the unobservable. Physics, chem- istry and biology form a complimentary but ill-defined and merging trio.The first, at school level, is predominantly concerned with patterns of general behaviour, the second with patterns of specific behaviour, the third with patterns of individual and fluctuating behaviour. Chemistry as a school subject has been attacked on the grounds that it calls for no judgement, that it is merely a catalogue of irrelevant facts and fancies of minimal or no interest to all but a RIC Reviews 214 strange minority. It can be so-even the stimulating explorations of one generation can be inert ideas for another as Whitehead pointed out-it can be so, but it need not be so. If attention is focused on the objective aims in terms of skills and attitudes to be acquired by pupils we have criteria for selection, and perhaps a basis for wiser judgement on our part.The third question raised earlier was that of adequate provision for varia- tion of treatment within a community. This is not just a question of difference of treatment of the subject for the very capable, the capable and the not so capable, but of uniformity of treatment for a given ability range. Absence of uniformity is noticeable in the extreme age groups-the under 12 year old pupils and the undergraduates. Both are free from the restraints of a centralized external examination geared to uniformity of coverage. This is not so at the present time with the able 15-18 age group-particularly in European countries and those influenced by them. The effects of examinations on chemistry curricula up to the level of university entrance has been the theme of a recent report by the IUPAC Committee on the Teaching of Chemistry22 although it does not take an IUPAC report to convince many teachers in the UK of the restraining influence of an examination syllabus.The question is not whether these syllabuses have or have not a restraining influence, but whether the restraining influence is acceptable or not. How is that to be decided? An examination is an instrument for detection and measurement; if it is shown that it is a valid and a reliable instrument for assessing the extent to which approved aims and objectives have been achieved, its restraint is likely to be acceptable. A major change in perspective in the last decade has been from a pattern in which action is geared to examinations (traditionally respectable, but never- theless often of unstated purpose and usually of unproven validity and reliability) to a pattern in which both action and examinations are geared to the same set of objectives.We shall return to the question of assessment. The point here is that if the objectives stipulate a framework of operational objectives within which there is flexibility of coverage and the exurninations are geared to this, then uniformity or non-uniformity of coverage is very much more a matter of tactical decision for individual teachers. The last question raised in this analysis of action was that of selection and rejection of suggested experience for pupils.Change and tactical freedom are bound to bring discomfort to the established and uncertain-and that means all of us in some respect-and although the emergence of a guiding procedure has been indicated yet there are factors and pressure groups which influence action in the area where there is choice: the class-room. These factors influencing immediate action need to be looked at. The present climate of opinion Although it is limited in its sampling, the Schools Council report23 on science for the more able and older pupil summarizes a great deal of contemporary professional thought. In particular the paper by the Master of Marlborough on four major patterns which are emerging and that by V. J. Long on the problem of breadth versus depth of study are pertinent to our immediate concern.But there are opinions other than those of educationalists: those of Halliwell 21 5 the consumers-industry, commerce and universities-and those of the products (‘consumed’ perhaps would be an unhappy choice of word)-the students. The former are asking more and more for boys and girls who have a lively critical mind and can cope and look forward to coping with problems in an industrial setting. There is much talk about improving ‘the poor image of industry’ which seems to be an outcome of our present system. The opinion of students at the moment seems more focused on unacceptable administration and the lack of intellectual stimulation in learning than on questions of pur- pose, but if one of the aims of education is to develop a lively critical in- dependent mind, then the need to have to cope with lively critical independent action is to be expected.It was early pointed out in the USA that one of the results of new schemes of chemical education would be dissatisfaction with what might be met at a later stage. The pattern which is emerging is a weaning from a ‘we-they’ to much more of an ‘us’ situation, and this is unlikely to be possible unless the freedom in tactical decisions referred to above is a part of the action to achieve the aims. The Chemical Bond Approach proposalsz4 in the USA and the Nuffield Chemistry approach in the UK14 have begun to make this freedom possible. This will be so for any project that suggests an approach to be used rather than a rigid course to be followed and suggests optional ways of rounding off the work.The need for examinations which have the same objectives is obvious. Availability and suitability of resources The more affluent countries are short of manpower but comparatively rich in educational material resources. The converse often holds for the less affluent countries. However, both groups are in the process of introducing changes and whether resources, human or material, are available or planned, the common problem is the appropriateness and quality as well as availability. The USA, the UK to a lesser extent, and to a still lesser extent other countries with a well established educational system have spent considerable sums of money bringing existing teachers up-to-date and giving them a feel for new approaches as well as swelling their ranks.The supply of appropriate and necessary equipment is a different matter: some countries are bedevilled by lack of money, others ensnared by an abundance of gadgetry, and yet others bogged down by an encumbrance of outmoded-even archaic-apparatus in schools which gives a restricting, although erroneous, impression of being well equipped. Some guidance as to what is wanted will be got from consideration of the purpose of practical work. A valuable account of an inquiry into the nature and purpose of such work in school science teaching in England and Wales was published in 1964.z5 However, this was general in nature, and for the efficient supply of equipment the precise objectives of each particular piece of practical work need to be recognized.In this area much thought, investiga- tion and planning are still needed, but it should be noted that some countries have already set up centralized units to do this. It is of interest to note that Ceylon has set up a pilot production-unit for apparatus as part of a teacher training and research centre for science teaching. A reappraisal of the use of national resources is emerging. The focus is beginning to change from fitting a pupil into a scheme, from looking round RIC Reviews 216 hopefully to see what is available, to formulating what effect practical work is supposed to have on the pupil in his particular socio-economic context and designing equipment, whether simple or complicated, to bring about this effect.It is equally important that the place in which the work is done be designed for effective working out of the objectives. There are schools and universities in many parts of the world where the laboratories show little change of plan from those set up in German universities in the middle of the last century. Design of an educational work room must be controlled by purpose as much as is the design of an industrial workshop or a domestic kitchen-and purposes are changing at the same time as materials and equip- ment are changing. Attention is drawn to the recent publication of suggestions and plans for laboratories in the UK.26 Other injuences on education But there are three other factors which are having a particularly powerful influence on class-room and lecture-room activity : the change of perspectives and emphases in late 20th century chemistry itself; the diversification and development of aids to learning based on the considerable amount of research carried out on the learning process particularly over the last two decades; and the changes in objectives and techniques and, therefore, in the demands of examinations. Much has been said about the explosion of knowledge in science over the last quarter of a century and even more about the dismal outlook as the pro- cess goes on.Its significance for chemical education is that it forces the issue of selection. Less perhaps has been said about the changes in perspectives and emphases in science, and it is these changes which are having a marked influence on the necessary selection and the adopted approach.The change from saying, ‘It is known that. . .’ to ‘It looks as i f . . .’ when dealing with human interpretations, the change from an intellectually arrogant certainty about de rerum natura to an attitude of operational expediency in the use of man-made and changing conceptual models, the change from an acceptance of hard categorization to an awareness of merging sub-sets of phenomena, the change of focus from exposition of truth to acquisition of mastery, these changes of perspective are becoming more and more noticeable in students’ and pupils’ texts.Campbell’s new text for college students,27 the proposals of the Chemical Bond Approach Project24 and of the Nuffield Proposals in Chemistry,14 Kauzmann’sZ8 treatment of the kinetic theory of gases for under- graduates are poles apart from corresponding texts written even three or four decades ago. If science is seen as a human activity born of curiosity, developing through the use of critical imagination, corrigible and asymptotically tentative in its achievements, but amorally powerful in its application, then selection of areas for pupils’ experience must be geared in these directions. A pattern of treatment which seems to be emerging is that education through chemistry involves exercise in answering five questions : What material changes are going on and why should I bother with them? Do they fit into a wider pattern and does it help to think about them in terms of atoms, molecules, ions and giant structures? HaIliweIl 217 15 How fast is the change and can it be adjusted? How far does the change go and can it be controlled? What energy changes also take place and do they throw any light on what is happening ? Pertinence and the organization of experience for judgement and discrimination are taking the place of ‘preparation and properties’.Whereas the latter often was second-hand book knowledge, the former demands much more personal experience of materials. Paradoxically, an attempt has been made29 to con- struct a chemistry syllabus without mentioning a specific chemical : it is written in terms of intellectual and manipulative skill which should be acquired by the end of the course.However, a pupil cannot know or show that he has these skills unless he has exercised them on materials and on ideas-his own and other people’s. A recent review of the way man uses different types of intellec- tual models for different purposes in the natural sciences, theology, psychology and the social sciences is particularly commended to edu~ators.3~ The May 1968 issue of Education in Chemistry was concerned with audio- visual aids. A great deal has been published in the last five years on this topic, varying from unhelpful gadgetry to fundamental insight. As a learning influence we have had personal experience as long as man has existed, the teacher since prehistoric times, the printed book for 400 years, the film for half a century, the audio-video tape for a comparatively brief period.It is not surprising that we have much to do before we know how or when to use them all to an effective end. That films can have a considerable impact, that they can communicate an idea and stimulate thinking we know-‘Entropy’ made by Professor Porter and Professor Campbell’s ‘Crystals and their structures’ are two outstanding examples-but we still need to know how best to follow them up so that the ideas are usable and become used. The waste of time and loss of power in using a lecture for the transmission of factual material is acknowledged. The possibility of using video tapes for individual learning is known.But how to weave practical work, personal communication and indivi- dual use of learning aids into a profitable programmed experience for the individuals of a large class is still comparatively unexplored. One outcome is certain: more time spent in new techniques means less time spent on tradi- tional ones and coverage of subject is bound to diminish. ASSESSMENT There are three areas where assessment is necessary and they involve the use of different techniques. On a national scale, society as well as those responsible for policy will want to know whether the overall aims of an educational policy are being achieved and whether, and what kind of, adjustments are necessary. In the area of science teaching the existence of the Dainton Report31 is evi- dence that all is not well: from its content it is also clear that we are largely ignorant of the factors causing the malaise, and we have to try to bring about an adjustment while working in the dark.During the development of new schemes, critical assessment is needed to judge the suitability of a proposed treatment for a given age group or the relative advisability of different treatments. If the proposal to introduce say RIC Reviews 218 three-dimensional structure, or the difference between changes in enthalpy and free energy, or the use of partial molar quantities, fails with a group of speci- fied age and ability, the reasons can be diverse. It may be that the topic was badly positioned in a wider programme, or that the actual programming of the topic was at fault, or that the teacher was inadequately helped to carry out the programme as intended.The Chemical Bond Approach Project, the Chemical Education Material Study and the Nuffield Foundation Science Teaching Project were all three developed with considerable feedback from teachers and pupils under class-room conditions. This was judged adequate as a first approximation, but at the stage of adjustment and revision the time has come for a more critical study of specific cases of learning situations. Most progress has been made in techniques for measuring the extent to which individual pupils have achieved the objectives of a course. A series of publi~ations3~ on new examination techniques has been issued by the Schools Council in the UK.Mathews8 makes an important point that good examina- tion questions reflect good teaching situations, and examples of new types of questions from England, USA, Australia and Japan21 show that this is now an established approach. A primary question is what is the examination supposed to find out-whether it is a school examination for average pupils or a final degree examination for undergraduates. The IUPAC report,22 already referred to, detects at least eight purposes. These are: ( i ) to test achievement; (ii) to indicate a student’s potentiality in the subject; (iii) to select for further education; (iv) to select for employment; (v) to select for monetary or scholastic award; (vi) to test the effectiveness of teaching; (vii) to guide teaching methods; (viii) to guide pupils and diagnose their difficulty.It is questionable whether any one instrument can measure all these. For some years noyv the College Entrance Examination Board in New York has separated its examination into two distinct parts, achievement tests and scholastic aptitude tests; but more investigation is needed into the analysis of demands and responses in examinations for those who are not going on to higher education. If the purpose of the examination is to measure the extent to which indivi- duals have achieved the stated objectives the situation is clear. The designing of the instrument and the checking of its validity and reliability is nevertheless a complex and expensive operation if there are more objectives than just the ability to recall.Multiple-choice questions have been considerably developed in recent years and the early reaction that they only measured the trivial is now far from justified. They are difficult and therefore expensive to produce; their validity and reliability can be pre-tested and adjustments made if they are faulty; marking them is quick and objective. They are, however, restricting in that they limit a candidate’s response. The tendency now is to use them in their simple form for part of the examination, to devise programmed questions for another and to use open questions for a third part. Hudson has recently made Halliwell 219 a lively and stimulating survey of the way teenagers react to confrontation with a question.33 His analysis of pupils into a spectrum ranging from out- standing convergent thinkers to outstanding divergent thinkers cannot but be a warning to those planning programmes: it also underlines the need for examination demands complementary to straight multiple-choice questions.As yet we have only an incomplete picture of the anatomy of innovation in chemical education, and but tentative knowledge of the integrated functioning of its parts. The interactions which arise and the great range of expertise required in planning and achiving innovation in a complex society are formid- able. However, it is clear that there is at least one guiding principle, which is applicable to the whole gamut of organized education but which nevertheless provides considerable opportunity for individuality of treatment in the class-room. REFERENCES UNESCO, 1967.1 H. F. Halliwell, Strategy and Tactics in Educational Reform in Science, Sc/WS/ll Paris : 2 Report of the International Clearing House on Science and Mathematics Curricular Developments, Science Teaching Centre, University of Maryland, 1967. 3 J. S. Bruner, The Process of Education, 33, Harvard University Press, 1960. 4 G. Porter, The Laws oj’Disorder: an introduction to chemical change and thermodynamics, London: BBC, 1967. 5 R. W. Tyler, Educ. Res. Bull., 1933, 13, 197. 6 B. S. Bloom (ed.) et al., Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Part I Cognitive Domain, 1956; Part I1 Afiective Domain, 1964; London: Longmans.7 University of London, General Cevt$cate of Education Examinations, Nufield Science Teaching Project Chemistry Ordinary-Level: Teacher’s Booklet and Candidate’s Booklet, Schools Examination Department, University of London, 1967. 8 J. C. Mathews, Educ. Chem. 1967, 4, 2. HMSO, 1960. 9 R. S. Nyholm, Marchon Lecture, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1964. 10 A. I. Yantsov, ‘Achievements in Modern Science and Technology and the Soviet School’, Supplement to the Higher Education Journal, 1959, 17, 11 S. D. Onabamiro, School Science Teaching, A Report of an Expert Conference held at the University of Ceylon, Peradeniya, December 1963, 50, London: HMSO, 1964. 12 Science in Secondary Schools, Ministry of Education Pamphlet No. 38, 1, London: 13 A Policy Statement issued by The Science Masters’ Association and The Association of Women Science Teachers, 4, London : Murray, 1961. 14 Nufield Chemistry: Introduction and Guide, Nuffield Foundation, London : Longmans/ Penguin, 1966. 15 J. S. Richardson, ‘The Consequences of Contemporary Advances in Scientific Know- ledge on Secondary School Science Teaching’, Supplement to the Higher Education Journal, 1959, 11. 16 J. F. Kerr, The Problem of Curriculum Reform, 1 1 , Leicester University Press, 1967. 17 Science Curriculum Improvement Study, University of California, Berkeley. 18 Nufield Junior Science, London : Collins, 1967. 19 Science for the Young School Leaver, Schools Council Working Paper No. 1, London : HMSO, 1965. 20 Time Space Matter, Secondary School Science Project. New Jersey: Princeton University. 21 ‘The Nuffield Foundation A-level Physical Science Course’, Educ. Sci., 1967, 29. 22 The Efect of Examinations in determining the Chemistry Curriculum up to the Level of University Entrance, Report of the IUPAC Committee on the Teaching of Chemistry, London: Butterworths, 1966. 23 Science in the Sixth Form, Schools Council Working Paper No. 4, London: HMSO, 1966. 24 Chemical Systems, Chemical Bond Approach Project, London: McGraw-Hill, 1964. 25 J. F. Kerr, Practical Work in School Science, Leicester University Press, 1964. 26 Designing for Science, Building Bulletin No. 39, Department of Education and Science, London : HMSO. RIC Reviews 220 27 J. A. Campbell, Chemical Systems: Dynamics, Energetics, Structure, San Francisco : Freeman, 1966. 28 W. Kauzmann, Kinetic Theory of Gases, New York: Benjamin, 1966. 29 Ref. 14, p. 17. 30 I. T. Ramsey, Models and Mystery, London: OUP, 1964. 31 Inquiry into the Flow of Candidates in Science and Technology into Higher Education, Chapter 7, London: HMSO, 1968. 32 Examinations Bulletins, 1965 onwards, London: HMSO. 33 L. Hudson, Contrary Imaginations, London : Penguin, 1967. 22 1 Halliwell