Australia's Chief Scientist Talks Teaching. (March 19, 2012)

This past Tuesday, Australia's Chief Scientist, the immediate past vice-chancellor of ANU, Ian Chubb, told his audience at CSIRO's Discovery Centre: "[W]hile I agree that science, maths and engineering hold the solutions to many of our future challenges, assuming that science will always be there when we need it is incredibly risky, especially if we can’t engage and inspire the younger generations to pursue science."

He also made the point that a fortnight before he had presented to the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard -- and who had been Minister for Education, prior to her elevation -- his report on what needed to be done for and with education in the sciences, mathematics, engineering and technology. It remains to be seen when and if it will be made public.

He went on to quote statistics that have been making the rounds for some time: "[L]ike most other developed countries, high school students in Australia are not very interested in doing science or advanced mathematics in high school. Between 1992 (after which school retention rates were fairly stable) and 2009, the proportion of Year 12 students taking physics, chemistry and biology fell by 31%, 23% and 32% respectively. The proportion taking one of advanced mathematics or intermediate mathematics has dropped from 41% to 29% over the same period....

"We need to think about how we deliver science, mathematics and engineering to a generation of students who have many, many, many more options available to them than we ever had, and who make choices... We also need to change the way we support our science teachers. I’ve spoken to many science and mathematics teachers and whilst not every single one would share the view, the general view would be that they’ve been a bit neglected. Science is moving ahead at a pace and professional development programs don’t move ahead with the same pace.

"We in our universities, we scientists, we mathematicians, need to work out a way to help these teachers. This is a national issue; this is a role where the federal government, I believe, has to take some direct responsibility. In my research for my submission to the Prime Minister, we were told by everybody that science and maths teaching has to be inspiring, that relevance is important – and this also comes from the school students themselves."

And finally: "The reason it’s so important to have students studying science in high school is partly to increase the numbers that go on to university, but also partly because we need to develop a science literate community... In the report I submitted to the Prime Minister, there was a general conclusion that the level of scientific literacy in the community is not at the level it should be."

Well, it's easy to talk the talk but who is going to take the first step in what needs to be a decade long march of implementation.