Staying in the science stream: patterns of participation in A-level science subjects in the UK

Emma Smith

doi:10.1080/03055691003729161

Staying in the science stream: patterns of participation in A-level science subjects in the UK

Emma Smith

Education and Social Justice

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

53 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper describes patterns of participation and attainment in A-level physics, chemistry and biology from 1961 to 2009. The A-level has long been seen as an important gateway qualification for higher level study, particularly in the sciences. This long term overview examines how recruitment to these three subjects has changed in the context of numerous policies and initiatives that seek to retain more young people in the sciences. The results show that recruitment to the pure sciences has stagnated, general trends have hardly varied and the track record of government policy in influencing change is not strong. There is no evidence for increasing achievement gaps between the sexes at A-level and even national policy requiring that all young people study science up to the age of 16 appears to have had little impact on recruitment at this level

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	59-71
Number of pages	13
Journal	Educational Studies
Volume	37
Issue number	1
Early online date	6 May 2010
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/03055691003729161
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2011

Bibliographical note

null

This is an electronic post-print version of an article published in Educational Studies Vol. 53, No. 3 (2003): 282-295. Educational Studies is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ceds20/current.
The DOI of the final publication is: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055691003729161

Keywords

achievement gaps
A-level attainment
science education

Access to Document

10.1080/03055691003729161

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03055691003729161

Cite this

@article{472f92565f64440f9e4448704aaae27f,

title = "Staying in the science stream: patterns of participation in A-level science subjects in the UK",

abstract = "This paper describes patterns of participation and attainment in A-level physics, chemistry and biology from 1961 to 2009. The A-level has long been seen as an important gateway qualification for higher level study, particularly in the sciences. This long term overview examines how recruitment to these three subjects has changed in the context of numerous policies and initiatives that seek to retain more young people in the sciences. The results show that recruitment to the pure sciences has stagnated, general trends have hardly varied and the track record of government policy in influencing change is not strong. There is no evidence for increasing achievement gaps between the sexes at A-level and even national policy requiring that all young people study science up to the age of 16 appears to have had little impact on recruitment at this level",

keywords = "achievement gaps, A-level attainment, science education",

author = "Emma Smith",

note = "null This is an electronic post-print version of an article published in Educational Studies Vol. 53, No. 3 (2003): 282-295. Educational Studies is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ceds20/current. The DOI of the final publication is: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055691003729161",

year = "2011",

month = jan,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1080/03055691003729161",

language = "English",

volume = "37",

pages = "59--71",

journal = "Educational Studies",

issn = "1465-3400",

publisher = "Routledge",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Staying in the science stream: patterns of participation in A-level science subjects in the UK

AU - Smith, Emma

N1 - null This is an electronic post-print version of an article published in Educational Studies Vol. 53, No. 3 (2003): 282-295. Educational Studies is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ceds20/current. The DOI of the final publication is: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055691003729161

PY - 2011/1/1

Y1 - 2011/1/1

N2 - This paper describes patterns of participation and attainment in A-level physics, chemistry and biology from 1961 to 2009. The A-level has long been seen as an important gateway qualification for higher level study, particularly in the sciences. This long term overview examines how recruitment to these three subjects has changed in the context of numerous policies and initiatives that seek to retain more young people in the sciences. The results show that recruitment to the pure sciences has stagnated, general trends have hardly varied and the track record of government policy in influencing change is not strong. There is no evidence for increasing achievement gaps between the sexes at A-level and even national policy requiring that all young people study science up to the age of 16 appears to have had little impact on recruitment at this level

AB - This paper describes patterns of participation and attainment in A-level physics, chemistry and biology from 1961 to 2009. The A-level has long been seen as an important gateway qualification for higher level study, particularly in the sciences. This long term overview examines how recruitment to these three subjects has changed in the context of numerous policies and initiatives that seek to retain more young people in the sciences. The results show that recruitment to the pure sciences has stagnated, general trends have hardly varied and the track record of government policy in influencing change is not strong. There is no evidence for increasing achievement gaps between the sexes at A-level and even national policy requiring that all young people study science up to the age of 16 appears to have had little impact on recruitment at this level

KW - achievement gaps

KW - A-level attainment

KW - science education

U2 - 10.1080/03055691003729161

DO - 10.1080/03055691003729161

M3 - Article

SN - 1465-3400

VL - 37

SP - 59

EP - 71

JO - Educational Studies

JF - Educational Studies

IS - 1

ER -

Staying in the science stream: patterns of participation in A-level science subjects in the UK

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this