Copy of email sent to the Times Educational Supplement

I was saddened to learn of the Royal Society's decision (announced
today at http://royalsociety.org/) to ask Prof. Michael Reiss to
stand down form his post as Director of Education following
widespread coverage of remarks he made about teaching evolution to
students with creationist world-views. The gist of Prof. Reiss'
argument was that the appropriate response to students who raise
their beliefs in class when they are taught the scientific theory of
natural selection should not be to ignore, dismiss or ridicule the
students' views, but rather to respect their ideas as a starting pint
for discussion, and to challenge them through the scientific
arguments that have led to evolution by natural selection becoming
some a strongly supported and widely accepted model for how life on
earth has developed.

Prof. Reiss' comments are said to have damaged the reputation of the
Royal Society. As it seems accepted that, as Prof. Reiss has made it
absolutely clear, he was not suggesting teaching creationist ideas
(as some misleading media reports implied or suggested); and that his
views about the status of evolution (as a successful scientific
theory) and creationism (as something that is not scientifically
supported and so not a scientific theory or model) seem totally in
keeping with the broad scientific consensus, it is hard to see how
his comments are objectionable. If the mis-reporting was seen as
potentially damaging to the Royal Society, then it should have taken
the opportunity to use the widespread media interest to reiterate and
explain its own position.

I can only conclude that what was found objectionable about Prof.
Reiss' position was that he was using his vast experience as a
science teacher and researcher of science classrooms to suggest that
certain approaches naively offered by some academic scientists with
no experience of teaching in the school system, are likely to be
ineffective. Rather, he draws upon the widely accepted,
evidence-based position adopted by most science educators, that the
best way to develop children's thinking is to give them the chance to
talk about their ideas, and to explore and understand why scientists
have come to understand things differently. This general principle is
central to science education, and is strongly supported by research
evidence: just as natural selection is in biology. It reflects the
scientific values of maintaining an open mind, and of considering and
evaluating evidence, that we hope to instill in students. Of course,
children with strong creationist views may not be prepared to
question their existing ideas if these are central to their cultural
and family identities: but Reiss' recommendations make more sense
than simply dismissing their ideas as irrelevant and telling them to
instead learn something that contradicts their own strong
convictions. Children's creationist views may be irrelevant to
science, but they are highly significant to both their learning of
the science, and their developing attitudes to science as a source of
reliable knowledge. Those FRS who decided to ignore this and call for
Reiss dismissal, seem to be forgetting that their own expertise is in
science, not schooling, which is presumably why they appointed a
science teacher and educational researcher to high office in the
Society.

In summary, the decision to dismiss Reiss seems to suggests that some
academic scientists feel they know best in education, and are not
prepared to listen to experts informed by a different field of
research than their own. I fear that it will be this decision to sack
rather than explain which could bring the Royal Society in disrepute,
not the inaccurate reporting of a talk in the media. In my view, the
Royal Society has today done a disservice to science education in the
UK, and so indirectly to the future of science.

--
Dr. Keith S. Taber

http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/staff/taber.html
http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/kst24/

University Senior Lecturer in Science Education
Science Education Centre
University of Cambridge Faculty of Education
184 Hills Road
Cambridge CB2 8PQ
United Kingdom