SCIENCE IN ADULT EDUCATION | 305 



SCIENCE IN ADULT EDUCATION 



Report of Committee appointed to cpnsider and report on the place of Science 

 in Adult Education (Dr. A. W. Pickard-Cambridge, Chairman ; Mr. 

 A. Gray Jones, Secretary ; Mrs. V. Adams, Prof. W. B. Brierley, 

 Prof. L. E. S. Eastham, Sir Richard Gregory, Bt., F.R.S., Mr. 

 A. E. Henshall, Prof. R. Peers). 



Contents. 



1. Introduction. 



2. Statistical Summary of Classes held under the Adult Educa- 



tion Regulations and under the Regulations for Further 

 Education. 



3. The Aims of Science Teaching in Adult Education. 



4. Suggestions for the Teaching of various subjects. 



5. Appendix. Specimen detailed Syllabuses and Bibliographies. 



I. Introduction. 



This report is necessarily brief and should be regarded as complementary 

 to the interim report presented at the Leicester Meeting in 1933. That 

 report was the work of an earlier Committee appointed at the York Meeting 

 in 1932. The Committee comprehensively surveyed the position of science 

 teaching in adult education and made a number of valuable suggestions 

 and recommendations, but for various reasons was unable to complete the 

 scheme of work proposed. 



The present Committee was appointed at the Blackpool Meeting in 1936. 

 They felt that in the light of experience gained since the issue of the 1933 

 Report, their terms of reference could most usefully be discharged by rapidly 

 surveying the present position of science in adult classes, by defining the 

 aims of science teaching and by presenting a series of agreed recommenda- 

 tions on the content of such teaching. Their work has thus to some extent 

 proceeded on lines projected by the previous Committee. 



The Report therefore opens with a statistical survey designed to show 

 the number and percentages of adult educational classes studying one or 

 other of the various branches of science. The statistics demonstrate the 

 very modest position occupied by Science classes. 



This is followed by a brief summary of the aims of science teaching in 

 adult education, in which emphasis is laid on the social implications of 

 science and its impact on the life of the community. 



The next section provides a number of positive suggestions for the teaching 

 of various scientific subjects. These take the form in each case of a brief 

 summary of agreed opinion as to the general ground to be covered in (a) one 

 year ; (b) three year courses. 



An appendix provides detailed syllabuses and bibliographies in biology, 

 geology, and psychology, which may serve as examples. 



The Committee trust that the topics suggested and the detailed syllabuses 

 provided will be useful to all who are concerned to widen the field of science 

 teaching in adult education. They believe that this can most fruitfully be 

 done if the social implications of science are borne in mind. The relation- 

 ship between science and the life of the community is emphasised in these 

 suggestions, for the mature adult student becomes conscious of that relation- 

 ship not only through his studies but also through his experience of life. 



