ON SCIENCE IN SCHOOL CERTIFICATE EXAMINATIONS. 453 



Science in Vacation Courses for Teachers. 



No account of the training of teachers would be complete which 

 omitted reference to the valuable vacation courses arranged by the Board 

 of Education, local authorities, university bodies and various associations 

 and institutions. 



The help given in the refresher courses of the Board of Education is 

 greatly appreciated. The arrangements for 1928 include a course in rural 

 science at Cambridge specially for teachers in elementary schools. The 

 Board has also arranged courses for teachers in secondary schools in 

 physical chemistry at Oxford, in biology and botany at Cambridge and in 

 physics at Harrow. There is also a course for teachers of domestic 

 subjects in dietetics to be held in London. 



Of the local education authorities, Cheshire provides courses in 

 chemistry and biology, Glamorganshire in general rural science, Hertford- 

 shire in horticulture, Kent in handicraft in relation to science and nature 

 study, and the study of plant life, and Yorkshire, West Riding, in nature 

 study. The Oxford University Training Department includes natural 

 science among the subjects in their course on education which, under 

 certain conditions, admits to the examination for the university diploma 

 in education. The Educational Handwork Association provides courses in 

 science handicraft, nature study and rural science. 



The value of such courses as the above, when they include a con- 

 siderable amount of practical work and discussion, can hardly be over- 

 rated. They give opportunities to teachers in elementary schools to be 

 brought into touch with the university lecturer who is able to put the 

 rudiments of the subject as viewed in the light of the latest research. 

 The secondary school teacher has opportunities of developing special 

 craft skill or of hearing recent developments in his own particular subjects. 

 The courses, moreover, offer an opportunity, not so widely used as it 

 might be, of broadening the scientific interests of those science masters 

 who have been somewhat exclusively trained in the direction of physics 

 and chemistry. The intensive biological course under summer school 

 conditions has proved of very great value to those whose business it is to 

 face the problem of science teaching on broad lines. 



A new syllabus for rural science has been drawn up by the Departmental 

 Committee on Rural Education so that entrants to a training college who 

 qualify by means of this new alternative examination must have reached 

 a definite standard of attainment in science and in the mathematics thereof. 

 The syllabus is issued by the Board of Education and by the Oxford and 

 Cambridge School Certificate Authorities. The Departmental Committee 

 is hopeful that the lead it has given in this way will make itself felt in the 

 training colleges. 



In this connection reference may be made to the Committee's recom- 

 mendation that the elements of natural science should be a compulsory 

 subject in the Public Schools Entrance Examinations — although this is 

 not relevant to the questions of the training for teaching in secondary 

 schools except in so far as concerns the importance of the first steps in the 

 study of science. On this point the Secretary to the Common Entrance 

 Board observes that at one time a ' nature study ' paper used to be set 



