Bèta-onderwijs in EU drastisch herzien

These recommendations need to be taken seriously – stimulating interest among Europe’s young for science and technology is crucial if Europe is to have a future based on the best use of knowledge.”

De wergroep-Rocard vast zijn advies als volgt samen: ‘The diagnosis established by the group is based on an analysis of on-going initiatives. Elements of know-how and good practice that could bring about a radical change in young people’s interest in science studies have been drawn from this analysis and presented in the report. The group asserts that a reversal of school science-teaching pedagogy from mainly deductive to inquiry-based methods provides the means to increase interest in science. Indeed, the “learning by doing method” in which the teacher accompanies the pupil and leads him to discover science for him/herself stimulates the child’s observation skills, imagination and reasoning capacity.

The report calls on policy makers across Europe to implement change and sets out what this change should be – the adoption of inquiry-based science education. The wider benefits of this technique for a broad range of pupils, their teachers and the society as a whole are identified. The report also observes that effective collaboration at the European level is being translated into actions at the local level, but the scale is insufficient, and articulation with national programmes should be greatly improved. Scaling-up to a European level would not only allow a significant expansion of the approach itself, it would also permit a large number of pupils and teachers to profit from the experience and the building up of knowledge within a wide network.’