D. G. Chisman Center for Educational Development Overseas Tavistock House South London W.C. lH9LG, United Kinadom and R. S. ~ y h o l m Universitv of London London, United Kingdom
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Chemistry for the Concerned Citizen
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i n the United Kingdom
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and British Commonwealth
The object of this report is to try to summarize what is happening in the United Kingdom and in the British Commonwealth to inform citizens about science in general and chemistry in particular. The report is divided into three parts: school, nniversity level, and adult education. School Level
Most people are familiar with the fact that in the same way that the United States produced in the posbSputnik era, school programs on biology, physics, and chemistry to bring these subjects up to date, so the Nuffield Foundation and the Scottish Education Department in the United Kingdom sponsored programs a t various levels for secondary and primary school. First, they produced the so-called Ordinary Level program for children between the ages of eleven and sixteen. In practice, this has been of greatest value for the top 30-40% of children and especially for those aiming to continue with science in some form or other, be it medicine, engineering, or one of the pure sciences. Following this program, the Advanced Level Course was produced. This is a two-year program, catering to students up to the age of eighteen or nineteen, and is equivalent to the end of first year in an Australian or American university. Perhaps of greater interest to us, however, is a new program called Nuffield Secondary Science Project. This tries to present science as part of a general education for schoolchildren and is specificallyintended to prepare them to become scientifically informed citizens. Of course, the assumption is that students will remember, after leaving school, the kind of things they learned in this program and will apply them to everyday life. This assumption may not be valid unless continued contact with science a t the adult level is effected. Overall, the direct and indirect results of the Nuffield Project appear to us to be 1. The syllabuses and examinations of d l of the Examining Boards in Britain have been brought up to date. 2. The subjects of chemistry, physics, and biology are now taught in many schools with a greater eoncern for the spirit of enquiry, the use of the experimental approach, the relevance of the subject to everyday lifeand the intellectual stimulus that they provide for the child. 3. It became abundantly clear from the outset that a retraining of teachers was frequently essential, and although this has not gone as far as we would like, we believe that the situation is now much better than it was ten years ago. 4. A considerable number of new experiments have been developed for use at the school level, replacing many of the oldfashioned and irrelevant ones--such as the prepsration of oxygen from mercuric oxide. Film loops, data hooks,
teachers' guides, and other aids have been published, a11 of which enhanced the status of science in the eyes of the pupils and teachers. The immediate impact of the Nuffield Project, however, for the general adult public is small and the effect will not be evident far some years until the present youngsters reach maturity.
University Level
English universities have long been geared to specializat,ion and indeed many of them abandoned years ago all courses other than special Honors Degrees. The situation arises from the fact that in Britain good secondary schools normally teach chemistry, physics, mathematics, and biology to a level a t least equivalent to that a t the end of the first year in universities of the British Commonwealth overseas and on the North American Continent. This has meant that a good deal of pre-selection occurs a t school; i t has been assumed in the past, wrongly we believe, that most students know exactly what they want to do so far as study for a career is concerned when they enter the university. Three factors are changing this. First, there is a natural desire on the part of the public for a higher percentage of school graduates to go to a university and to receive an education in this type of environment. This means that the average ability of students coming is not as high as i t was before and many of these want to study for a general degree. Secondly, there bas been a willingness on the part of a few universities to recognize that more and more students in the sciences wish to be educated through their discipline, rather than for a job in that particular subject. This means that there should be more courses which can be roughly summed up as "science for liberal studies." (A course along these lines is presented by Professor Jevons in the University of Manchester.) The third factor which has been influential is that most children today have been reared in an environment in Western Society, where the 1930's concept of unemployment, social insecurity, and the need to fight to get a job have largely disappeared hence speculation is less attractive to them. (Cynics in the United Kingdom and elsewhere would comment on this point that this is purely a temporary phenomenon, and that our inability in the Western world to control the economics is rapidly leading us back to the 1931 situation.) It must be said however, that chemistry for the informed citizen of the future is still not a widely t,aught subject in universities. Frequently, the courses are labeled as "ancillary" and are almost immediately damned for that reason. Secondly, there is a wide-spread view that Volume 49, Number 5, May 1972
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the top University chemistry lecturers teach the Honors students and the lesser mortals teach general courses. This is deplorable, but i t arises out of university specialization. Until the length of university courses is increased to four years and the study of a science subject by nonscientists becomes a necessary part of degree-as it is for instance in Keele-we are not optimistic that the prestige of chemistry for nonscientists will be greatly improved. Adult Education
This gives us more grounds for hope. Before, during, and immediately after the war the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) which has long enjoyed a very high reputation in Britain and in Australia, provided a considerable number of adult education courses in science for the concerned citizen. These tended to be very local in character and seemed to be less effective in the very big cities like London, partly because travel to and from work takes up so much of the time that a person might otherwise be able to devote to this kind of activity. The British Association for the Advancement of Science (B.A.) has for over a century done a first-class job, hut it is passing through a traumatic period when i t is trying to come to grips with a changing situation. Gone is the time when people went along in a leisurely way to the Annual Meeting of the Association in September and heard, for example, Sir William Ramsay announcing the discovery of the noble gases. People are far busier and the cost of providing and attending the meetings has greatly increased. The effect of the British Association upon the community as a whole today is, I think, a peripheral one a t least so far as the meetings are concerned. Of greater value is the press and radio/television coverage which the B.A. enjoy^. Also the B.A.Y.S. Scheme (British Association for Young Scientists) has developed branches in many parts of the country and these have done a lot to stimulate youngsters through Science Fairs and meetings and it is hoped that this interest is carried on after the school level. The daily and weekly press give a very limited coverage of science except where i t is spectacular. The so-called quality paper The Times has a daily science article hut most other papers provide a very poor cover of scientific developments. The weekly New Scientist does a good job for the limitedand already converted-audience to which it is addressed. Undoubtedly the most important media in the United Kingdom today for explaining to the intelligent layman what is happening in chemistry are the radio and television services of the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Independent Television services. There have been some popular programs such as the Science Brains Trust edited by Dr. Archie Clow; programs such as Horizon, Tomorrow's World, and other documentaries have done much to familiarize the average man in the street with what is happening. Unfortunately, there is all too often the inevitable I' gimmickry" . on the part of the producer who is frequently more interested in presenting some exciting new development, for example heart transplants, than in giving an overall picture of the role of chemistry in particular and science in general in the community. We need many more programs on topics such as 320
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Journal of Chemical Education
"fuels"-the various kinds, the cost per therm, and the need for a balance between the use of local and imported fuels. The tragedy is that we don't think we have yet to come to terms with the enormous potentiality of television and radio. Excellent use has been made of i t by Professor George Porter, Director of the Royal Institution; this organization has, in a modest way with its evening programs, long tried to get science across to those members of the public who are prepared to turn up a t 9:00 PM in a dinner jacket in Albemarle Street for the Friday evening Discourse. Professor Porter's Christmas lectures for children, especially the wperb series on entropy-and those of the late Sir Lawrence Bragg-have helped enormously to widen the influence of the Royal Institution and to make people appreciate a lot more about science. Basically, the main problem in the United Kingdom is that many of our politicians and the people in the top echelon of the Civil Service are educated in the classics or in the arts generally, with very little knowledge of science. Ignorance itself is not a crime, but the tragedy is that far too many of those in these high offices give the impression that they are proud of their ignorance. It is a peculiar world in which scientists, rightly, feel ashamed if they do not know the meaning of the Latin expression, non sequitur, or the history of the development of England in, say, the nineteenth century, hut many of their arts colleagues know little of the scientific and technological facts which have affected the development of society during the past twenty years, and are fairly happy to remain in this state. Changes will come about only when a broader general education up to the stage when children leave school is insisted upon, and when i t is generally appreciated that one of the subjects which needs to he taught to all people a t school is science-right up to the time when they leave school. We have made little reference so far to the Dominions. The position in New Zealand is similar to that in the United Kingdom, except that the excellent facilities of the Royal Institution are missing; much the same situation holds true for Australia. It is fair to say that there is a willingness on the part of the Civil Servants and politicians who want to inform the average citizen about science, but the job done by broadcasting and television in Australia is very much worse than in the United Kingdom. Overall, the unwritten policy seems to be that you put on commercial television that which is likely to sell somebody's latest detergent and if it comes to more sophisticated subjects such as space travel the organizers tend to work on the principle "if I can't convince them I'll confuse them." The National (State) Broadcasting system tends to try to compete a t this level with a consequent lowering of standard. There are a few bright spots on the horizon, however. Australia has developed a modest University of the Air and in the United Kingdom the vigorous Open University, which involves the use of the BBC channels for several hours per week, is enabling many people to benefit even though they are not formal course students. We believe that the future lies in the effective use of television and radio, with time deliberately purchased by the State for programs which are both intelligible and sophisticated enough to appeal to bright, but uninformed, minds.
