SCIENCE teachers are to be encouraged to bring their creativity to the classroom as part of their professional development.
The Association of Science Education is pioneering a new training programme which it hopes more than 1,000 teachers a year will eventually follow.
The programme will encourage teachers to come up with new ideas and innovative practices to improve their performance and that of the school. Teachers will keep a portfolio of their work over two years and, if successful, wll get a certificate.
Those on the course will also have the option of going on to postgraduate study at the Open University. If they complete an in-depth version of the certificate, the university will count it as one sixth of a masters degree.
The ASE has been awarded more than pound;165,000 over three years by the Teacher Training Agency to extend its successful pilot from September.
A university spokesman said the scheme could “easily” be adapted for other subject teachers.