School Science Education in Wales - A ‘Successful Future’?

Sep 5, 2026

This article reviews the current state of science education in primary and secondary schools in Wales amid major curriculum and qualification reform. It considers evidence used to judge effectiveness, the role of international comparisons in shaping political pressure, and how an emphasis on international test “scientific literacy” may alter curriculum priorities. The study argues that pedagogy matters as much as curriculum change, and examines whether research-informed teaching shifts appear in inspection guidance. It also discusses potential consequences of diverging science assessment between Wales and England for UK higher education.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Pupil performance in science

School Science Education in Wales – A ‘Successful Future’? PROFESSOR DAN DAVIES Cardiff Metropolitan University ABSTRACT This article examines the current state of science education in primary and secondary schools in Wales at a time of significant change in both curriculum and qualifications. It does so against a background of increasing international comparison of pupil attainment and the political imperative for change that perceived weak performance in such measures can create. Whilst reviewing a range of evidence that could be used to judge the effectiveness of science education in Wales, the article also considers the potential impact upon the curriculum of a focus upon ‘scientific literacy’in international tests and the likely consequences of current plans to combine science with technology in the curriculum. Centralised reform seldom focuses upon pedagogy, yet the approaches to teaching and learning being adopted in classrooms are arguably more significant than curriculum change. It is therefore salient to review the extent to which researchinformed pedagogical shifts in science education are reflected in inspection evidence or guidance. The article concludes with a consideration of the likely consequences of divergence in science assessment and qualifications between Wales and its larger near-neighbour England in the context of a UK-wide higher education marketplace. Key words: science, international comparisons, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, qualifications [https://doi.org/10.16922/wje.18.2.5](https://doi.org/10.16922/wje.18.2.5) Wales Journal of Education Introduction Science education at primary and secondary level has been the subject of much research, international comparison and curriculum change in recent years. Its curriculum formation, pedagogy and assessment have been scrutinised and reformed in many countries as a result of significant research findings concerning pupils’ acquisition of scientific concepts and skills, together with the availability of international comparative data. However, until recently these drivers have arguably had relatively little effect on science teaching in Wales, where in 1999 the newly formed Welsh Assembly assumed responsibility for most aspects of school-level education, with further powers added in 2006. This is about to change. The proposal in Successful Futures (Donaldson, 2015) for a ‘Science and Technology Area of Learning and Experience’ raises the prospect of science disappearing as a named school subject in Wales. Pupils will continue to take GCSE examinations in science (either combined or as separate physics, chemistry and biology) at the age of sixteen, so there will need to be a transition phase at age fourteen where they continue with aspects of science and technology alongside their GCSE studies. However, below this age the elements of knowledge and skills previously packaged as ‘science’ will find their home – or not – within a radically reconfigured curriculum. Quite what this will look like remains to be seen; whilst Successful Futures sets out principles and broad descriptions, it constitutes an emergent model led by ‘Pioneer Schools’ – ‘a network of innovative... schools across Wales who will play a pivotal role in developing and realising the new curriculum’ (Welsh Government, 2015)– to gradually add content and detail leading up to full implementation in 2021. Whether a new curriculum developed by schools who have in recent years been pressurised by high-stakes assessment and accountability measures into force-feeding knowledge, ‘teaching to the test’ and multiple resits can be truly innovative remains to be seen. The Donaldson reforms have been driven, in part at least, by the widespread perception that the quality of school education in Wales has declined since responsibility for it was devolved to the Welsh Assembly. In particular, international comparisons facilitated by Wales’s entry in the OECD Programme for International Stude

FAQs

Why does the article stress pedagogy in addition to curriculum change?

Centralized reform is said to seldom focus on pedagogy, yet classroom approaches to teaching and learning may be more consequential than curriculum redesign. The article therefore checks how research-informed pedagogical shifts are reflected in inspection evidence or guidance.

Sep 5, 2026

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