Scientific enquiry. The nature and place of experimentation: part 2

Most school syllabuses, even those for primary stages, specify aims that relate to the use of experimental work in gaining evidence. The paper describes a series of experiments in Botswana and Scotland with pupils aged 12-15 which aimed to measure the attainment of such outcome's and the development of such outcomes by targeted teaching. A first experiment surveved 330 Botswana school pupils. This was followed by a study of 752 Botswana school pupils where 342 were exposed to teaching materials aimed deliberately to encourage the development of such skills, the remainder being taught normally. The assessment procedures were repeated with 741 Scottish pupils of the same age