As part of the Issues in Subject Teaching series, this book aims to examine some of the key debates in science teaching. This is no mean aim, given the emphasis on coverage of concerns across both primary and secondary phases.

This book is organised around a number of themes, beginning with an overview of the national curriculum by Tony Turner. This provides interesting reading (particularly for PGCE students and newly qualified teachers) and signposts issues that are picked up later in the book.

Two chapters concerned with the philosophy of science raise questions about how science is perceived and taught in a pluralist society, and look at the nature of science in the curriculum. The next three chapters examine the place of science in the learning curriculum. With their separate emphases on primary schools, secondary schools and lifelong learning, this is likely to be the part of the book where teachers head directly for their particular age specialism or interest.

A section on investigative work provides useful perspectives on developing pupils’ understanding of scientific evidence and on extending investigations beyond “fair tests”.

One issue of great concern is not picked up here, and is not raised in the chapters on assessment, which deal only with the use of pupil data for target-setting and the use of formative assessment in raising standards. Although it is mentioned briefly in the introductory chapter, the way in which the assessment of investigative skills affects the nature and range of investigations carried out by pupils would have been a welcome discussion, since for many teachers it forms one of the greatest concerns about the science curriculum.

Coverage of other issues in the book is fairly comprehensive: the development of literacy, numeracy in science classrooms and the issue of progression between key stages 2 and 3 - all very welcome with the KS3 strategy unfolding in secondary schools. Health education, learning styles, differentiation, methods of grouping pupils and using ICT to support pupils’ learning also appear.

The range of issues covered make this book very suitable for science teachers at any stage of their career and in any phase. Teachers responsible for science teaching in their institution should buy a copy, and make sure that it is available for all science colleagues. Better still, use one of the chapters, and the discussion questions at the end of it, as the basis for a staff meeting.

Patrick Fullick is director of secondary PGCE courses at the University of Southampton