Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning Fiona Hislop
'Science and the curriculum' speech at the Insititute of Biology Conference
Stirling University on June 5, 2008
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Good morning and thank you for inviting me here to Stirling to speak at your conference.
I was particularly pleased when Professor Jack Jackson - who is one of my former teachers - had asked me to speak about science in the context of our curriculum reforms and our plans for Scottish Science and Language Baccalaureates.
I note from the programme that you can look forward today to some very interesting speakers covering a wide range of topics - from some of the challenges posed by changes to the global environment to matters concerning science and health.
I am sure that by the end of the day you will have much to ponder and reflect on as I know that the conference provides a good opportunity for networking and catching up with colleagues.
I need to return for questions later in the Chamber this morning and therefore I am only able to be with you for short time but I am sure that Professor Jackson will let me know in due course the key points arising from today.
Curriculum for Excellence
As many of you will be aware, the delivery of Curriculum for Excellence goes to the heart of what we want to achieve in improving outcomes for young people.
Curriculum for Excellence is about transformation in education in Scotland. This will be a coherent, more flexible and enriched curriculum from 3 - 18, firmly focused on the needs of the child and young person. Curriculum for Excellence will enable improved quality of learning and teaching and increased attainment and achievement for all children and young people in Scotland. As the OECD said in its recent report, Quality and Equity of Schooling in Scotland, curriculum reform has to come from schools rather than waiting for central direction.
The Scottish Government has high ambitions for Scotland; ambitions which demonstrate our confidence in the potential talents of Scotland's people. Our principal purpose is to create a more successful Scotland with opportunities for all to flourish through increasing sustainable economic growth. To deliver this purpose five overarching strategic objectives have been identified - to make Scotland smarter, safer and stronger, wealthier and fairer, greener and healthier.
We believe that these objectives should be the focus of government and public services both nationally and locally.
Curriculum for Excellence plays a significant role in achieving our principal purpose and strategic objectives.
Curriculum for Excellence is there to help prepare all young people in Scotland to take their place in a modern society and economy. The curriculum will provide a framework for all young people in Scotland to gain the knowledge and skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work that they need.
This means:
- a coherent and inclusive curriculum from 3 to 18 wherever learning is taking place, whether in schools, colleges or other settings
- a focus on outcomes
- a broad, general education
- time to take qualifications in ways best suited to the young person
- more opportunities to develop skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work for all young people at every stage
- a focus on literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing at every stage
- appropriate pace and challenge for every child
- ensuring connections between all aspects of learning and support for learning.
We already have a great deal of excellent practice in Scotland. We need to build upon this to create more exciting, engaging, relevant learning and teaching in every pre-school centre, school and college, or wherever the child or young person is learning.
Learning in science has to have a central place in all of this and I was pleased that work on the science curriculum has been at the forefront of developments. I am also delighted that colleagues with a deep understanding of science and science education have offered to help us make the most of the mechanisms we are trying to put in place. Those mechanisms include the draft experiences and outcomes in science, which have been written to meet head on the aspirations that teachers said they had for the curriculum - this work is about providing the professional autonomy and responsibility you need to enable young people to learn what they need to learn in order to develop those four capacities - to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.
SSERC and CPD
Of course, Curriculum for Excellence developments have implications for teachers' continuing professional development. In support for CPD, the Scottish Schools Equipment Research Centre have consistently demonstrated that, as an organisation working with each of the 32 local authorities, they can respond positively to a rapidly changing educational landscape.
SSERC command professional recognition among their peers for their technical expertise. They are highly respected within the education community in Scotland.
SSERC have developed a well proven ability to bring together a wide range of organisations, including the Institute of Biology, supporting teacher education.
In their work, they have fully integrated their training courses with university science departments, initial teacher education institutions, professional bodies in each of the main science disciplines and partners from the commercial sector.
By way of acknowledging the work that SSERC and their partners have been undertaking over recent years and the quality teacher CPD opportunities they provide, the Government have provided SSERC with a grant in excess of £2M over the next 3 years.
This new funding will allow SSERC to continue their very successful conference for technical support staff, the Leadership Courses for Heads of Faculty and the hugely successful residential events for PGDE science students.
Scottish Survey of Achievement
On a another science-related matter that will be of interest to you, we intend next week to report on findings from the third Scottish Survey of Achievement on Science and Science Literacy. Although this survey was carried out under the previous administration, findings will help to inform our review of arrangements for 3-18 assessment overall and in particular, to ensure that these arrangements are fully supportive of our ambitions for Science within Curriculum for Excellence.
Science Strategy
Let me now turn to our strategic approach to science.
The Government's Economic Strategy confirmed plans to "outline how science will underpin Scotland's success as a nation through: developing knowledge exchange between academia and business; increasing the flow of overseas investment into Scotland's R&D base; and developing the science base.
That strategic framework will, of course, also focus on developing the future science workforce - building on work to improve school education through for example, CPD for science teachers, finalising Curriculum for Excellence science guidelines and best practice, and reform of science qualifications.
As part of that I'm convinced we need to involve a wider range of people - scientists in science-related jobs in business - from technicians in the chemicals industry or venture capitalists investing in tomorrow's technology, to the growing number of successful science entrepreneurs in Scotland - to broaden horizons and enthuse more young people. Science jobs are predicted to rise by 12% between by 2014 compared with 1% in other occupations.
The new framework for science will be published later this year.
Qualifications
I want to ensure that we have a qualification system that works for all young people, including those who are less likely to realise their full potential. We must have a next-generation system that equips our young people with the skills required to meet today's needs and tomorrow's likely demands.
As a result, we need a coherent system of curriculum and assessment from three to 18 and a qualifications system that reinforces the curriculum for excellence's values, purposes and principles. Moreover, some aspects of the current qualifications system need to be improved. All of that demands change.
I announced in the Parliament on 24 April a number of proposals for consultation on the next generation of National Qualifications.
These are:
- Introduction of new awards in literacy and numeracy;
- Introduction of a new general qualification at SCQF levels 4 and 5 which will replace Standard Grade (Credit and General) and Intermediate 1 and 2 whilst reflecting the best features of the current arrangements;
Qualifications at Access, Higher and Advanced Higher levels will be retained as points of stability; and I wish to Explore ways to increase flexibility to better meet the needs of young people.
The Scottish Government has sent all secondary school head teachers a DVD giving further information on these proposals.
I will be launching the consultation process next week and the consultation will run from this month until the end of October.
This is your chance to help ensure that our qualifications system develops the skills and raises the ambitions of Scotland's young people. I would therefore encourage you to take every opportunity to discuss the proposals within your schools and with parents and pupils and contribute to the consultation.
Baccalaureates
As I said earlier, I am delighted to use this event to announce the details of our plans to introduce a Scottish Science Baccalaureate and a Scottish Language
The Scottish Government has made a clear policy commitment to introducing the Baccalaureates as an important element of the Curriculum for Excellence programme in S5 and S6. They will encourage a range of skills as independent learning, analytical ability and, through well planned interdisciplinary studies, increased skills in making creative connections between aspects of learning.
The Baccalaureates aim to encourage more of our young people to study science and language courses in the later stages of secondary school.
They will raise the status of S6 and assist our young people in making the transition from school to higher and further education and employment.
In this way, they will contribute to the Government's principal purpose of creating a more successful Scotland with opportunities for all to flourish through increasing sustainable economic growth. They will also help to deliver our five strategic objectives particularly creating a Smarter Scotland.
The Baccalaureates will include existing qualifications in science and languages at Higher and Advanced Higher level. The new element of the awards will be an interdisciplinary project to be taken in S6. This is intended to give young people the chance to work across subject boundaries, study a topic in greater depth and link their learning to areas of future interest in HE, FE or employment.
The projects will be designed to be flexible. This gives you and the young people that you teach good opportunities for choice in the projects being undertaken.
However, examples of the topics that could be studied within the Science Baccalaureate are investigating how the life sciences are used in industry and ethical issues in science. I know that good collaborative work is already taking place between secondary schools, FE and HE.
For instance, Professor Salla from the University of Edinburgh will be addressing this conference later today. The University of Edinburgh's Pathways to the Professions project is helping S5 pupils from schools across Edinburgh and the Lothians who are studying Biology and the other sciences.
The Science Baccalaureate provides an exciting opportunity to take such collaborations further and inspire more of our young people to pursue learning and employment in the area of science.
A summary of the structure of the awards and courses to be included in the Baccalaureates is available here today for you to collect. Information is also available on the Scottish Government's website.
The Scottish Government and SQA will be taking forward work on the Baccalaureates with stakeholders in schools, colleges, HE and representatives from business and industry. We expect the first Baccalaureates to be awarded in August 2010.
Their success will however depend upon the support of the teaching profession. I have been impressed by your commitment to developing teaching and learning in your subject. The range of topics and speakers at today's conference is a clear testament of that commitment.
The Science Baccalaureates provides an important opportunity to help our young people explore the issues that you will be discussing today. Without at all wishing to pre-empt Professor Michael Reiss's address, I hope that our plans for the Science Baccalaureate will help to secure a positive future for biology education.
Conclusion
Curriculum for Excellence will offer better educational outcomes for all young people and provide more choices and more chances for those young people who need them.
The experiences and outcomes for science provide us with a tremendous opportunity to increase young people's understanding of the world around them, the enormous scientific and technological challenges and opportunities we face as a society and the sheer excitement of knowing of scientific enquiry.
Thank you for listening.