This chapter focuses on aspects of science that are interesting to students and valuable in their lives. It aims to demonstrate the importance of the student voice in developing the content and teaching of science in secondary schools. A number of educationalists had long expressed the view that the existing school science curriculum served neither purpose well, leading to calls for further reforms to science education. The Relevance of Science Education (ROSE) project is an international survey designed to compare attitudes towards learning science and technology. Focusing on the interests of Finnish students in the physical sciences, a recent ROSE survey highlighted similar topics of interest among boys and girls, all relating to astronomy, space, stars, planets, meteors, supernovas and the universe. The majority of students were said to be familiar with issues such as pollution, and a large number with more complex issues such as the impact of the clearing of rainforests and its implications for land use.

The research aims to articulate the experiences and opinions of Year 6 (Y6) teachers, primary headteachers and primary science coordinators as a contribution to the debate about the effect of statutory national testing in England and its abolition in Wales. A multi-faceted approach of quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis was used in England and Wales including a telephone survey of 600 respondents and eight focus group interviews involving a total of 74 participants. The findings of this research provide insights into the strategies adopted by Y6 teachers in England in ensuring pupils gain the highest possible scores in high-stakes national tests, used as the basis of published Schools and Colleges Assessment and Attainment Tables at Key Stage 2 (KS2). Test preparation is perceived by teachers to narrow the curriculum, and for science in particular, as the inclusion of only those aspects of science likely to be included in paper and pencil tests is said to have reduced many aspects of investigatory science in Y6. Year 6 teachers in Wales reported working to develop effective teacher assessment strategies, supported by the continued use of optional test materials, to inform summative judgements about pupils' levels of attainment in science at KS2. Practical science activities, including investigations, were reported as becoming an important feature of science lessons in Y6 in Wales. Although it is too soon to make predictions about the longer-term effects of the abolition of national testing on Y6 teachers and the teaching of science in Wales, early indications suggest increased opportunities for investigative science in Y6.

This article offers a review of the major literature about attitudes to science and its implications over the past 20 years. It argues that the continuing decline in numbers choosing to study science at the point of choice requires a research focus on students' attitudes to science if the nature of the problem is to be understood and remediated. Starting from a consideration of what is meant by attitudes to science, it considers the problems inherent to their measurement, what is known about students' attitudes towards science and the many factors of influence such as gender, teachers, curricula, cultural and other variables. The literature itself points to the crucial importance of gender and the quality of teaching. Given the importance of the latter we argue that there is a greater need for research to identify those aspects of science teaching that make school science engaging for pupils. In particular, a growing body of research on motivation offers important pointers to the kind of classroom environment and activities that might raise pupils' interest in studying school science and a focus for future research.

Recent arguments in science education have proposed that school science should pay more attention to teaching the nature of science and its social practices. However, unlike the content of science, for which there is well-established consensus, there would appear to be much less unanimity within the academic community about which ideas-about-science are essential elements that should be included in the contemporary school science curriculum. Hence, this study sought to determine empirically the extent of any consensus using a three stage Delphi questionnaire with 23 participants drawn from the communities of leading and acknowledged international experts of science educators; scientists; historians, philosophers, and sociologists of science; experts engaged in work to improve the public understanding of science; and expert science teachers. The outcome of the research was a set of nine themes encapsulating key ideas about the nature of science for which there was consensus and which were considered to be an essential component of school science curriculum. Together with extensive comments provided by the participants, these data give some measure of the existing level of agreement in the community engaged in science education and science communication about the salient features of a vulgarized account of the nature of science. Although some of the themes are already a feature of existing school science curricula, many others are not. The findings of this research, therefore, challenge (a) whether the picture of science represented in the school science curriculum is sufficiently comprehensive, and (b) whether there balance in the curriculum between teaching about the content of science and the nature of science is appropriate.

The Evidence-based Practice in Science Education (EPSE) Research Network is part of the UK Economic and Social Research Council's Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) - the largest programme of educational research ever conducted in the UK. EPSE is undertaking four related projects, whose overall aim is to help us understand better the relationship between science education research and practice, and thereby increase the impact of research, leading to improved learning of science by more pupils. The four EPSE projects are the only ones in the TLRP that focus specifically on science education. In this article, three of the EPSE projects are briefly outlined. A second article (also in this issue of SSR) discusses the fourth project. As the projects are still in progress, all the findings reported are interim ones.

Recent arguments propose that school science should pay more attention to teaching epistemic aspects of science. However, unlike the content of science, little is known about the extent of consensus within the science education community on which ‘ideas-about-science’ are essential elements of the science curriculum. This study sought to answer this issue empirically using a three stage Delphi process using 23 participants drawn from a community of leading and acknowledged experts in science education; science; history, philosophy and sociology of science; science teaching; and public understanding of science. The outcome was a set of 18 highly rated themes about the nature of science, for which 9 had very strong support. Together with extensive comments provided by the participants these data give some measure of the existing consensus in the community engaged in science communication about what should be taught about science. The second phase of the research investigates the extent to which these themes can be explicitly taught.

The growing disparity between science as taught and science as experienced by the ordinary individual has led to a growing debate on the future of the science curriculum. One contribution that is missing from the debate is the views of consumers. This paper reports UK research, funded by the Wellcome Foundation, which elicited the views of pupils aged 16 years using twenty focus groups, selected on the basis of gender and post-sixteen intent. Another twenty focus groups were conducted with parents of pupils aged 15 and 16 years selected on the basis of science/non-science related careers. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using progressively focused coding techniques with the aid of qualitative analysis software. This enabled major themes within the data to be determined and provides fresh insights into the inherent problems with science as it is currently taught. These findings will be presented and discussed. Synopsis. The Research Context. Any debate concerning the science curriculum must begin with its aims which define its purposes and values. For instance, science education may be valued for its economic benefits in providing a supply of individuals trained and educated to become future scientists; for the utility of scientific knowledge in everyday life; for its emancipatory role in providing a corpus of knowledge necessary to participate fully in a scientific and technological society; or for its cultural contribution in making sense of the natural world and our relationship to the environment in which we are situated (1, 2, 3). A particular concern of recent critiques of the school science curriculum has been that it misrepresents science, and therefore, fuels the public misunderstanding of science. School science has been criticised for placing too much emphasis on 'what we know' at the expense of 'how we know' (4,5); for under-representing the interdisciplinary nature of much scientific activity; for failing to illustrate the social processes by which scientific knowledge is negotiated, criticised and agreed; and for its failure to embrace technology (6).