SCIENCE

One teacher's perspective of US/UK Science education

Art Fortgang on 27 April 2001

Art Fortgang is an exchange teacher from California and he led this discussion when he had been at the City of Bath College for 8 months. This experience, as well as his contacts with the University of Bath and `@Bristol', provided him with a background suited to comparing the teaching techniques and professions in the US and UK in Maths and Physics.

Overall, the two countries provide about the same level of education, but in different ways. Neither is perfect, and both have strengths. When comparing two recent physics text books, it is clear that they are both aiming to provide the same insights into the subject, and impart understanding, not just technique. Also, they aim at a similar standard at similar ages of students.
In the US, there is pressure to put together small teams to do course work that must be constituted in a `politically correct' manner, having a suitable mix of students in each team. In the UK, however, he was teaching a much smaller class, and did not have the same constraints.

The greatest advantage the UK had was in the uniform standards of the A-level exams. In the US, there are no similar nation-wide standards, and so schools, and even teachers within schools, can choose their own tests and must provide ongoing assessments of each student. This leads to competition between teachers for good rankings among students, with the associated pressures to lower standards. However, the US practice does allow more control by the teacher of students, who will be more willing to learn when they know that the teacher will grade their work. In the UK, the tests are marked externally, and so the teacher has little power over the class.

The downside of the UK approach is that it is harder to adapt the curriculum quickly to changing requirements as seen by the incoming students, who often are very aware of what they want education for, and what subjects may be useful. 30 years ago, the liberal arts were thought to provide a wide understanding and so provided the entry to high paid jobs. This is no longer true when much higher salaries are earned by science graduates, and engineers are in demand. Recently, things are moving even faster when it comes to specific skills knowledge that is seen to be needed.

In maths, the US concentrates more on ensuring understanding of what each mathematical operation does. Only when this is understood, can students really be trusted with calculators. In the UK, however, this point has not been taken up, and there are cases of blind application of computing power.

Both sides are equally under-funded. But the US has a distinct advantage in the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support all sorts of research that filters into companies from government bodies. This includes educational research, and can be a significant source of funds for individual teachers in schools, thereby providing more aids for the students.

Andy Pepperdine