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[heliona]

Physicists, take note.

This is just ridiculous, as far as I am concerned! If students are not taught how physics actually works, then any who decide to take it for A-level or at university are going to get a nasty shock! I'm very, very glad that I finished school when I did!

Physics 'dumbed down' in GCSEs

Comments

[heliona]

No, this was Physics becoming more about debate and less about actual mathematics etc. It's not about a general science GCSE. It's replacing the more usual, scientific Physics.

As far as I'm concerned, people are interested in science or they're not. Getting them to take a course that debates nuclear power isn't science. We did that in our General Studies GCSE, where we debated various topics, scientific, tecnological, and social. I learnt a lot of things that way, but I certainly didn't learn any science, and if I'd been interested enough to take physics as an A-level having done that, I would have been overwhelmed with the maths.

Basically, this new GCSE is what EXCOS was to Astronomy.

I do agree that it's bad that a lot of schools in England don't have the choice of separate science GCSEs - I was at a public grammar school that offered all three sciences separately, and I took all three separately, but of course my school did not have to abide by the government regulations.

As far as I'm concerned, this new implementation is just another step along the way. They have already started paying students to take science A-levels! What's that all about? The government are saying that we need more science graduates, well, I'm sorry, but how many of us that graduated who didn't continue in further education get jobs that have anything to do with science at all, let alone what we studied?

Sure, something has to be done, but paying students to take science, and making it easier for them initially, so that they get a false sense of how hard physics especially can be is not the right way to do it.