Australian Council of Science Deans (ACDS) President Sees Urgent Need for More Properly Trained Science Teachers. (December 22, 2006)

    The following article is reprinted from http://www.uts.edu.au/new/releases/2006/November/01.html

Urgent action by universities and governments must be taken to meet the exodus of well-qualified science teachers from the workforce in Australia as they reach retirement age according to UTS Dean of Science Professor John Rice. 

Professor Rice, who has just been elected to lead the Council of Deans of Science, said a failure to inspire the current generation of school students with the possibilities of science and mathematics will be felt down the track in a wide range of fields from engineering to business, medicine, agriculture and economics.

"Well trained science and mathematics teachers could soon be rare creatures indeed and we see no evidence of any serious workplace planning on the part of state and territory education departments," Professor Rice said.

"In schools, students are turning away from science and mathematics in droves and I can't say I blame them. Schools are struggling to find suitably qualified teachers, let alone teachers with a vision of and commitment to science and mathematics that will inspire students."

Professor Rice said the Council had sought a meeting with Federal Minister for Education Julie Bishop to present a new report on the preparation of mathematics teachers in Australia that has found that eight percent of school mathematics teachers studied no mathematics at university.

"We will be asking the Federal Minister to back the development of a national science and mathematics teacher workforce plan," he said.

"The split between university science faculties and education faculties is another thing that has to be resolved in order for there to be a new generation of teachers that can excite the interest of school students lead to meaningful career choices in science and technology professions. And in schools education authorities need to support a different professional environment for teachers in which currency of their science and mathematics and curriculum revision is as a natural thing."

“For their part the Council of Deans is taking bold steps to determine how university science education should evolve to provide science graduates well suited to the challenges of the world and workforce. There is a lack of appreciation among employers and the wider community of the breadth of skills students gain from university degrees in science and technology."

Professor Sue Thomas, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President of the Division of Health, Design and Science at the University of Canberra, and Professor Rice have been awarded a $250,000 pilot discipline based initiative grant from the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education to research these issues.

"Science graduates are often 'typecast' as capable only of wearing a white coat and conducting lab work," he said. "The common perception of an arts degree holder as broadly educated and capable of adapting to different roles should apply no less to people who have studied in the sciences.

"Scientific training brings with it skills that are widely applicable, such as quantitative modelling, and the reality is most science graduates will not end up working as researchers.

"Funding from Carrick would allow us to reveal what a science and technology trained person brings to a potential employer that goes beyond the narrow category of their specialisation in physics, or chemistry, or whatever."

Although over two months have past since the ACDS had sought a meeting with the Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop, Australasian Science in its January/February issue reports, "When Australasian Science went to press , the deans had only been able to meet with the minister's science advisor, who had referred the matter to her education advisor, who had not yet responded. Rice said: 'We haven't had a chance to discuss the substance of the matter'."

Looks like this isn't one of those matters Ms Bishop feels she "actually want[s] to achieve", at least not with any degree of urgency.