Career Orientation,Integration and Teaching Styles on a Generalist Course

The proportion of sixth-formers studying both science and non-science A level courses doubled, from 8.4 per cent in 1963 to 16.1 per cent in 1969. (DES, Statistics of education, 1969, vol. 1, table 26). That the trend is continuing is confirmed by the corresponding figures for first year A level courses, which increased from 10.4 per cent in 1963 to 18.6 per cent in 1969 (Ibid., table 27). Though these statistics indicate clearly the direction of the trend, the inclusion of ‘science-cum-general studies’ and ‘arts-cum-general studies’ groups clearly exaggerates the magnitude of mixed provision. For school leavers with A level passes, see ibid., vol. 2, table 14.

Statistical evidence to demonstrate a trend to broader courses in the universities does not appear to be readily available. This is partly due to problems of terminology (combined honours, joint honours, general degrees, etc.) One measure is the growth in the proportion of first year home undergraduates admitted to all universities in the United Kingdom classified under subject category 39 (combinations of pure science with social sciences and arts subjects), which has grown from 8.85 per cent in 1967 to 1.07 per cent in 1970. (See UGCA, table 4, in fifth report, 1966-67, and eighth report, 1969-70.) There appears to be general agreement that the growth of the new universities has substantially added to the number and range of broader courses available. For changes in types of course, combinations of subjects taken and flexibility of courses see Committee on Higher Education, Higher education (the Robbins report), appendix 2 (b), part in, section 1, pp. 201-17.

See, for example, the reports of the Committee on Manpower Resources for Science and Technology: Interim report of the working party on manpower parameters for scientific growth, Cmnd 3102, HMSO, London, 1966; report of 1965, Triennial manpower survey of engineers, technologists, scientists and technical supporting staff, Cmnd 3103, HMSO, 1966; report of the Working Party on Migration: The brain drain (the Jones report), Cmnd 3417, HMSO, 1967; The flow into employment of scientists, engineers and technologists, report of the Working Group on Manpower for Scientific Growth (the Swann report), Cmnd 3760, HMSO, 1968. See also Council for Scientific Policy, Enquiry into the flow of candidates in science and technology into higher education (the Dainton report), Cmnd 3541, HMSO, 1968; Department of Education and Science, Science Policy Studies, No. 3: The employment of highly specialised graduates—a comparative study in the UK and the USA (the McCarthy report), HMSO, 1968; The national plan, Cmnd 2764, 1965. Earlier the Robbins report (op. cit.), referring to the aims of higher education, stated: ‘We begin with instruction in skills suitable to play a part in the general division of labour …’ (para. 25). The committee also emphasised the relationship between skilled manpower and productivity (para. 192).

See, for example, Central Advisory Council for Education, fifteen to eighteen (the Crowther report), HMSO, 1959, chapter 25.

Snow C. P. The two cultures and the scientific revolution, Cambridge University Press, 1959.

See, for example, Leavis F. R. Two cultures? The significance of C. P. Snow, and M. Yudkin Sir Charles Snow's Rede Lecture, Chatto & Windus, 1962; L. Trilling, ‘The Leavis-Snow controversy’, in Beyond culture, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1967, pp. 133-58; A. S. C. Ross (ed.), Arts v. Science, Methuen, London, 1967; W. H. Davenport, The one culture, Pergamon, Oxford, 1970: R. M. Hutchins, The learning society, Pelican series, Penguin Books, 1970: M. Yudkin (ed.), General education, Penguin Books, 1971. Snow's reply to the debate is given in The two cultures and a second look, Mentor Books, London, 1964.

Richmond W. K. Culture and general education, Methuen, London, 1963. See also L. Hudson, Contrary immaginations, Pelican series, Penguin Books, 1967

Crowther report, op. cit., p. 282.

Hutchings D. Technology and the sixth-form boy—a study of recruitment to higher scientific and technological education in England and Wales, Oxford University Department of Education, 1963.

Hutchings D. The science undergraduate—a study of science students at five English universities, Oxford University Department of Education, 1967

Cotgrove S. F. Technical education and social change, Allen & Unwin, London, 1958; Sir E. Ashby, Technology and the academics, Macmillan, London, 1959: D. S. L. Cardwell, The organisation of science in England—a retrospect, Heinemann, London, 1957.

Barnard G. E. , McCreath M. D. , and Freeman J. Projection factors influencing choice in higher education, annex G, Dainton report, HMSO, London 1968, quoted in H. B. Pont, ‘The arts-science dichotomy’, in H. J. Butcher and H. B. Pont (ed.), Educational research in Britain, vol. 2, University of London Press, London, 1970, pp. 152-78.

Robbins report, op. cit., appendix 2 (b), part ii, section 2, pp. 167–89.

Miller G. W. ‘Students’ needs and counselling’, Univ. Quarterly, 22, No. 4, September, 1968, 456–65. See also Success, failure and wastage in higher education, Harrap, London, 1970.

Ibid. I am currently testing these hypotheses in a follow-up study with Celia Newbery of former Surrey County Council grant recipients whose awards terminated in 1963 and 1964.

Jones D. T. L. The education of scientists for industry: report of a survey of the views of professional scientists, Research into Higher Education Monographs, 1969. See also J. E. Gerstl and S. P. Hutton, Engineers: the anatomy of a profession; a study of mechanical engineers in Britain, Tavistock, London, 1966; A. D. Hopkins, The training of professional metallurgists, Lancaster Studies in Higher Education No. 2, 1967, A, i-a, 89; Ministry of Technology, The survey of professional engineers, 1968, Studies in Technological Manpower No. 1, HMSO, London, 1970.

Dainton report, op. cit. See also the Swann report, op. cit.; Butcher H. J. ‘An investigation of the ‘swing from science’, Res. in Educ., No. 1, 1969, 38–57.

Jones report, op. cit.

McPherson A. ‘The Dainton report—a Scottish dissent’, Univ. Quarterly, 22, No. 3, June 1968, 254–73; ‘Swing from science’ or retreat from reason?’, Univ. Quarterly, 24, No. 1, winter 1969, 29-43.

See, for example, the Swann report, op. cit.; the McCarthy report, op. cit.; A. D. C. Peterson, Arts and science sides in the sixth form, Oxford University Department of Education, 1960, and ‘Dainton and the international baccalaureate’, Univ. Quarterly, 22, No. 3, June 1968, 274-80; Elton L. R. B. , ‘The sixth form of the future—the headmasters’ view?’, Univ. Quarterly, 23, No. 3, summer 1969, 322-32.

McCarthy report, op. cit.

Price D. J. Little science, big science, Columbia University Press, New York, 1963; also ‘The exponential curve of science’, Chapter 30 in B. Barber and W. Hirsch (ed.), The sociology of science, Free Press, New York, 1962, 516-24.

McCarthy report, op. cit. See also the Robbins report, op. cit., paras. 258-72.

Peterson A. D. C. Arts and sciences sides in the sixth form, op. cit.

Proposals for the curriculum and examinations in the sixth form—a joint statement by the Standing Conference on University Entrance and Schools Council joint working party on ‘Sixth Form Curriculum and Examinations’ and the Schools Council's second working party on ‘ The Sixth Form Curriculum and Examinations’, December 1969. See also Allen G. C. , ‘After GCE: Q and F?’, Univ. Quarterly, 24, No. 3, Summer 1970, 231–43.

Peterson A. D. C. in Yudkin M. (ed.), General education, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1971, pp. 187–15.

Robbins report, op. cit., Appendix 2 (b), part 111, pp. 201-209. For some major American contributions see, for example, Harvard Committee, General education in a free society, Harvard University Press, 1946; Bell D. The reforming of general education, Columbia University Press, New York, 1966.

Iliffe A. H. The foundation year in the University of Keele—a report, Soc. Rev. Monograph 12, Keele University, 1968.

Scott N. University of Nottingham appointments board, 1961-62. Quoted in J. Heywood, ‘A report on student wastage’, Univ. Quarterly, 25, No. 2, spring 1971, 189–237.

Iliffe A. H. op. cit., section vii.

Jevons F. R. ‘The teaching of science’, in ducation, Escience and society, Allen & Unwin, London, 1969.

University of Surrey prospectus, 1972-73, pp. 81–3.

As at Keele; see Iliffe, op. cit. My colleague L. R. B. Elton contends that though there is equal weighting between the human science and physical science parts of the HPS course, the whole design, organisation and administration of the course from within the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences inevitably bias the course towards the human sciences.

I would like to emphasis quite explicitly that the views expressed in this paper are my own and are not necessarily shared by colleagues teaching on the course. The course administrator has no executive powers, policy decisions on matters pertaining to the course curriculum being the responsibility of the Board of Studies, which comprises all academic staff teaching significant parts of the course, together with a number of heads of departments who attend the termly meetings in an ex officio capacity. There are currently forty-seven members of the board, from eight departments. Students on the course are members of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, which provides half the teaching on the course.

The close relationship between O level and A level science courses was demonstrated for 1964 school leavers by Phillips C. M. , Changes in subject choice at school and university, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London, 1969. In a subsequent article she has shown that for 1967 school leavers the connection was rather less rigid: see ‘Flexibility—through evaluation or legislation?’ Univ. Quarterly, 24, No. 2, spring 1970, 173-6. Note also ‘Some changes in the factors affecting university entry, Res. in Educ., No. 4, November 1970, 81-94; P. H. Armitage et. al., ‘Towards a model of the upper secondary school system’, J.R.S.S., series A, part 1, 1970.

By Christmas 1969, after the sending of two follow-up letters to non-respondents and additional questionnaires to those thought to be living abroad, forty-six completed questionnaires had been returned. The response rates were 56 per cent for the first year and 84 per cent for the subsequent three years. I am indebted to Mr J. P. Freyne, head of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, for a small grant towards the cost of coding the data.

University of Surrey prospectus, op. cit.

A fuller discussion of their experiences has been given in M. P. Hornsby-Smith, ‘Student experiences in industry’, The vocational aspect of education, 23, No. 55, summer 1971, 81-9. See also ‘Our industrial image’, Management Decision, 4, No. 2, summer 1970, 15–17.

Musgrove F. ‘Self concepts and occupational identities’, Univ. Quarterly, 23, No. 3, summer 1969, 333–44. Preliminary analysis of the data from the follow-up study of former Surrey County Council grant recipients which I am carrying out with Celia Newbery lends further support to the importance of career plans in determining course performance. Research in this area has been summarised by G. W. Miller, Success, failure and wastage in higher education, op. cit., pp. 59-63.

Jary D. W. ‘General and vocational courses in polytechnics, with special reference to sociology, Univ. Quarterly, 24, No. 1, winter 1969, 44–59.

Clark B. R. , and Trow M. ‘The organisational context’, in Newcomb T. M. , and Wilson E. K. (eds.), College peer groups, Aldine, New York 1966. See also B. R. Clark, Educating the expert society, Chandler, 1962, chapter 6.

Hornsby-Smith M. P. ‘Student experiences in industry’, loc. cit.

Marris P. The experience of higher education, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1964, especially, chapter 7.

Hornsby-Smith M. P. ‘Student experiences in industry’, loc. cit.

For the first four intakes the average range of A level subjects taken by an intake was ten. Since 1967 the only course requirement has been an O level pass in Mathematics. This change in the regulations attracted more entrants from ‘arts’ backgrounds and the 1971 intake had a range of fifteen A level subjects, excluding General Studies, Religious Knowledge or Divinity or Art and considering different Mathematics subjects as one subject. In addition some entrants had ONC or HNC passes in a range of subjects.

A number of such courses have been offered since 1963, with varying degrees of success. A first year Human Ideas course offers a unified approach from philosophy, the social sciences and the history of science and technology. The vacation experience and final year dissertation and/or project, and the final year methods of science and technology courses, have similarly provided opportunities for bridging the two parts of the course. Within the human science options, sub-options in logic, philosophy of science, occupational psychology and industrial sociology have also provided these opportunities. From the 1971-2 session second year students will take a course in the pattern of invention and discovery. Mathematics, statistics and computing courses are all designed to service both human and physical sciences courses.

This point is also made in Jencks C. , and Reisman D. The academic revolution, Doubleday, New York, 1968, p. 498. These authors point to the challenging intellectual, managerial and diplomatic problems faced by genuinely interdisciplinary rather than additive courses.

Human and Physical Science syllabus, University of Surrey, 1971-2.

Some details are given in note 46 above.

Faculty of Science, ‘Notes For applicants’, 1972 entry, University of Manchester, 1971, p. 25.

Ibid. The course requires applicants normally to have both Mathematics and Physics A level passes.

See note 45.

Jevons F. R. op. cit., p. 150.

Cherns A. The art of the useful, 2, SSRC Newsletter No. 3, May 1968.

Jahoda M. quoted in SSRC Newsletter No. 11, March 1971, p. 3.

I owe these ideas to a reading of Holly D. ‘Society, schools and humanity’, The Changing world of secondary education, MacGibbon & Kee, London, 1971, especially pp. 52 and 111.

This is to some extent reflected in the overall averages of 51.9 per cent in the physical science and 54.5 per cent in the human science halves of die HPS course by die first sixty graduates.

Iliffe A. H. op. cit.

McKeachie W. J. Procedures and techniques of teaching: a survey of experimental studies, chapter 8, and H. Webster et al., ‘Personality changes in college students’, in Sanford N. (ed.), The American college—a psychological and social interpretation of the higher learning, Wiley, New York, 1962. See also W. J. McKeachie, ‘Research on teaching at the college and university level’, in N. L. Gage (ed.), Handbook of research on teaching, Rand McNally, Chicago, 1963.

The massive study of the British university teacher has nothing at all to say on the matter. Departmental differences in teaching or research orientation are the nearest approach to the analysis of what the university teacher does, but even here the data for the CATs showed them to be atypical. See Halsey A. H. , and Trow M. The British academic, Faber, London, 1971.

McKeachie W. J. op. cit.; R. Beard, Teaching and learning in higher education, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1970.

Bereiter C. , and Freedman M. B. ‘Fields of study and the people in them’, in N. Sanford, op. cit.

Holly D. op. cit.

The distinction between content- and discovery-oriented teaching may be useful here. See Sieber S. D. , and Wilder D. E. ‘Teaching styles—parental preferences and professional role definitions, ‘ Soc. of Educ, 40, No. 4, autumn 1967, 302–15.

Webster H. , Freedman M. B. , and Heist P. op. cit.

For 1957 see the Robbins report, op. cit., pp. 189-92, and appendix 2 (a), pp. 127-8. For students who would normally have graduated in 1965-66 in all universities in Great Britain the wastage rate in arts subjects was 9.4 per cent in social studies, 9.0 per cent in physical sciences, 14.6 per cent in engineering, 21.9 per cent and in other technologies 20.0 per cent; see UGC, Enquiry into student progress, HMSO, London, 1968, table 28. For a recent review of the literature see J. Heywood, op. cit. J. A. Wankowski concluded from his thorough analysis of withdrawals from Birmingham University that ‘the problem of student wastage is largely the problem of teaching’; see also J. A. Wankowski, ‘Students—why some fail: an interim report’, University of Birmingham Educational Survey, 1969. G. W. Miller has urged the need for research on teaching methods, bearing in mind subject differences; Success, failure and wastage in higher education, op. cit., pp. 234-5.

Robbins report, op. cit., appendix 2(b), pp. 253-6. Also see UGC, Report of the Committee on University Teaching Methods (the Hale report), HMSO, London, 1964, p. 39. The main student survey of 1962 showed that students in arts faculties received an average of 10.1 hours’ instruction weekly, compared to 9.9 hours in social studies faculties, 17.4 hours in pure science faculties and 19.8 hours in applied science faculties.

Ibid.

Jevons F. R. op. cit., pp. 146–9.

Jevons F. R. ‘Science outside the laboratory’, Univ. Quarterly, 23, No. 4, autumn 1969, 397–407.

Storer N. W. The social system of science, Holt Rinehart & Winston, New York, 1966, chapters 5 and 6. See also R. K. Merton, Social theory and social structure, Free Press, New York, 1957, chapter 1; B. Barber, Science and the social order, Collier, New York, 1962, pp. 122-42.

T. S. Kuhn's emphasis on the paradigm in science is relevant here. There is an existing body of doctrine which potential scientists must accept on authority if they are to be initiated into die scientific community. See The structure of scientific revolutions, University of Chicago Press, 1962. In this connection my colleague M. L. Burstall points out that whereas it is the norm for social scientists to refer to the contributions of the founding fathers, physical scientists rarely refer to the contribution of, for example, Newton. In their analysis of departmental influences on undergraduate attitudes, R. S. Vreeland and C.E. Bidwell quote a physicist: ‘In physics you can't communicate with the undergraduates. They just can't think at your level.’ Thus the physics student is cast in the role of the novice, ‘alien to the subject matter, who must learn basic facts and the language of the field before he is ready to grasp the structure of the discipline or talk with its masters’. See ‘Classifying university departments: an approach to the analysis of their effects upon undergraduates’ values and attitudes, Soc of Educ., 39, No. 3, summer 1966, 237–54.

Gamson Z. F. ‘Utilitarian and normative orientations towards education’, Soc. of Educ, 39, No. 1, winter 1966, 46–73. See also ‘Performance and personalism in student-faculty relations’, Soc. of Educ, 40, No. 4, autumn 1967, pp. 279-301. It is also interesting to note in this connection the reported process of divergence in educational values between students of science and social sciences over a two-year period at Bradford. See F. Musgrove, ‘A widening gap between students of science and arts’, Educ. Res., 13, No. 2, February 1971, 113-18.

Vreeland R. S. , and Bidwell C. E. op. cit.

A series of experiments in science teaching methods (but not styles) has been carried out by Elton and his colleagues at the University of Surrey. See, for example, Elton L. R. B. , Hills P. J. , and O'Connell S. ‘Teaching and learning systems in a university Physics course’, Physics Education, 6, 1971, 95–100. F. G. Watson has reviewed the literature in ‘Research on teaching science’, in N. L. Gage, op. cit. He summarises a study by M. L. Cogan on pupil perception of teacher behaviour as follows: ‘that is, in so far as the pupils in a science class see the teacher as well organised (conjunctive), they seem to respond by doing more required and self-initiated work. Similarly, as the pupils see a science teacher as ‘warm or friendly’ (inclusive), they seem to respond with greater effort’ (op. cit., p. 1038).