Well done Keith. You have my full support.

John Oversby

On Sep 17 2008, Dr. Keith S. Taber wrote:

>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.
>
>

--
From John Oversby

Institute of Education
Reading University
Reading
RG6 1HY
Tel 0118 378 5906