[Shark Bait (Stu)]

I'm glad that Science has been raised. I was reluctant to make any comments without being exposed to what high school students are expected to cover. My experience is limited to that of our Son, with young primary students just getting introduced to Science through their studies. It appears to be aimed at getting them to be aware of their environment, cause and effect, even some astronomy. In general it looks like it is designed to spark their curiosity.

It is concerning to read that there is a shortage of teachers in some of the Science based subjects. From memory, QLD had a shortage of English teachers around ten years ago. As far as i'm aware, this is no longer the case. Hopefully the shortage of Physics educators is addressed sooner rather than later. Thanks Paul, your detailed posts make for interesting reading.

The primary school my Son attends bases it teaching on the National Curriculum. I had assumed that with NAPLAN testing in place that all states were already teaching from standard curriculum. I am disappointed to learn that this is not the case. Then again, i'm not that surprised that QLD is one of the holdout states. QLD has a long history of doing things a little differently. Having all states within Australia on the same page would just make sense.

It will be interesting to see if this upcoming review continues with NAPLAN testing in its current form. NAPLAN is often given negative press which may, or may not be justified. My Son will undertake his first round of testing in Year 3, 2015. I will not be in a position to make a valid judgement until then. Whatever happens, I do think that some form of national assessment to determine if students are hitting required benchmarks is worth doing.


Edit: Nik, I would be interested to read what you have to say as well. Is it along the same lines as the post from Jonathan?