Online assignment

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THEORETICAL BASE OF PHYSICALSCIENCE EDUCATION-II
ASSIGNMENT
SUBMITTED TO, SUBMITTED BY,
SURUCHI VINEETH O
LECTURER IN PHYSICAL SCIENCE B.Ed STUDENT
PHYSICAL SCIENCE

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TOPIC:
CURRICULLUM PROJECT:
NUFFIELD SCIENCE TEACHING PROJECT

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INDEX
SL.NO CONTENT PAGE.NO
1 INTRODUCTION 4
2 NUFFIELD SCIENCE
TEACHING PROJECT
5-8
3 CONCLUSION 9
4 REFERENCES 10

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INTRODUCTION
Scientific revolution had its impact in all parts of the world
especially in the USA and Europe. The National Science Foundation
was founded in 1950 in USA with a view to develop a national
policy for the promotion of basic research and science education.
The launching of a sputnik by the Russians alerted the American
nation about the deficiencies in their science education. They began
to innovate science education at all phase of education. Their efforts
gathered momentum and ultimately resulted in major curricular
reforms. Nearly a dozen curriculum projects were initiated in the
60’s. A commission on Science Education was established by the
American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) to
explore new approaches for teaching science.

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NUFFIELD SCIENCE TEACHING PROJECT
The Nuffield foundation is one of the UK’s best known charitable
trust established in 1943 by William Morris (lord Nuffield) the
founder of Morris motors.
Nuffield science teaching projects were initiated in England. The
Nuffield foundation took the task of improving science education
and launched the project in 1961-62.
The original Nuffield Science Programme was concerned with the
production of new materials for Biology, Chemistry and Physics at
the O-level for students of age group 11-16. The programme was
then extended to the teaching of science in other levels. The
following are the Nuffield science teaching project.
1. Nuffield O-level Biology, Chemistry, and Physics - For
average and above average (age 11-16)
2. Nuffield Secondary Science - For below average (age 13-16)
3. Nuffield Combined Science - For all (age 11-13)
4. Nuffield Junior science - For all (age 7-11)
5. Nuffield A level Biology, Chemistry, and Physics – (Pre-
University course age 16-18)

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The Nuffield programme does not provide a highly structured,
readymade curriculum with clearly defined behavioral objectives and
an elaborate text book.
Objectives of Nuffield science teaching project
1. To make science intelligible and accessible to pupils of all
kinds in schools of all kinds.
2. To make science a more useful tool, both intellectually and
practically
3. To develop material that will help teachers to present science in
a lively and exciting manner
4. To develop and encourage an attitude of curiosity and inquiry
5. To develop a programme which is relevant to the world outside
the classroom
6. To develop a critical approach to the subject with an emphasis
on experimentation and enquiry rather than on the mere
assimilation of facts
7. The aim is not to produce a new syllabus, but a new approach to
teaching.
The main purpose was to develop materials that will help
teachers to present science in a lively, exiting and intelligible way.
The students are expected to learn by inquiry. The teacher has
greater freedom to translate and adapt the programme to meet
student’s needs and system requirements. The teacher’s guide, rather
than the student’s text represents the real heart of the programme.

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The course content is treated as molecule, cellular tissue, and
population level. The main feature of the subject matter is that it
focuses the pupil’s attention on living organisms and not just
biological principles. An attempt has been made to link various
biological themes. For example, population, genetics and ecology
can be considered together.
Study materials
The Nuffield programme provides:
 Reading materials in the forms of books: the texts are intended
to provide a clear indication of the overall structure of the
course, how subject matter can be approached in an
investigatory manner, how laboratory experiments can be related
to the books and films. However no separate laboratory manuals
have been provided.
 Teacher’s Guide – as the stress is on discovery learning, the
teacher is given a lot of flexibility in carrying out the
experiments given in the text.
 Films a) dealing with processes b) illustrating experiments c)
showing the sequence of a technique
 Test made of objective based items.
Courses basedon four themes:
1. The living community
2. The maintenance of the individual organisms
3. The organisms in relation to the environment

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4. The developing organism
The project lays emphasis on experimentation and critical evaluation
of evidence. Learning is based on laboratory works. Uses of a variety
of teaching methods were also provided in the course. Films and
other materials are also used for experimentation and discussion.
Examination system is also noteworthy. The long questions in the
traditional question are replaced by short questions. Various types of
question are included to replace simple knowledge based questions.
The six categories of questions included are:
1. Simple recall type
2. Association recall type
3. Experimental type
4. Experimental design type
5. deductive type
6. continuous prose

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CONCLUSION
Curriculum is a very important factor in education. It changes
according to the situations and the circumstance of a country.
The curriculum of education is decided in accordance with the
policy of the nation. Curriculum generally denotes all those
tasks that are performed by students. The Nuffield projects gave
people the opportunity to devise new ways of teaching. They
did this by giving people the time and responsibility to create
fresh ideas, and the obligation to make them work in the
classroom. The Nuffield Foundation sponsored not merely the
collection of good ways to teach, but their creation too. A
particular hallmark of Nuffield courses was that both course
content and examinations were devised by the people who
created the teaching and learning materials. The longevity of
the Nuffield Advanced Science programmes owed a great deal
to the sustained imagination of the examining teams who
retained the confidence of teachers of the courses Nuffield
Physical Science had a major influence on teachers who were
subsequently active in a range of curriculum projects and in
defining the National Curriculum. Materials science has
continued to be valued as context for developing ideas in the
physical sciences Nuffield Advanced Physical Science
combined Physics and Chemistry in a single subject, so that A-
level students could do Biology or an Arts subject as well as
Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics

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REFERENCES
1) Dr. Mathew, T.K. and Dr. Mollykutty, T. M (2013), Science
education: Theoretical Bases of Teaching and Pedagogic
Analysis.
2) www.nuffieldfoundation.org/curriculum-projects.