Key Stage 3 - teachers' choice

The latest revision of the Key Stage 3 science curriculum (see Educ. Chem., 2007, 44  (2), 35) was partly a response to a growing dissatisfaction among teachers that the current programme of study is too prescriptive. The QCA provides a 'non-statutory' scheme of work, covering physics, chemistry, biology, environmental and Earth sciences and astronomy, and teachers tend to follow this or face interrogation from Ofsted as to why they do not. Another criticism of the QCA scheme of work is that it doesn't encourage teachers to develop new materials or use different exemplars.  

The other driving force to the current changes is that Key Stage 4 has been revised to incorporate 'how science works.' According to QCA, the revised KS3 programme of study represents a shift in emphasis away from content towards scientific process and how science works. Knowledge of conceptual and factual information is important, it states, but the range and content statements are now more open to interpretation. The development of skills gets parity of esteem with subject-based knowledge.