The ALLEA Working Group on Science Education functions at the same time as the European Council of the Science Education programme of IAP (InterAcademy Panel, the global network of science academies).
Nowadays science often has a poor image in European societies and a shortage of manpower in scientific and technical jobs can happen. One reason for this negative situation is the poor pedagogical quality (or even absence) of science education at the pre-university level, especially primary and lower secondary. Thus the group is presently engaged in fostering science education and improving its quality.
The pilot projects funded during the last decade by the European Commission has demonstrated how efficient is the new pedagogy called inquiry-based science education to renew science education at low child ages. To make the renewal sustainable, the challenge is now to adequately train the very large number of science school teachers. Given that the European subsidiarity principle is applicable in matters of education, the working group is now focusing on the means to raise the awareness of politicians about the importance of science education. We think that Academies can play an important role for this sake, but also in alliance with other bodies, in particular industrial corporates.
Core Group Members of the Science Education Working Group
- Giancarlo Vecchio (Chair) – The National Academy of the Lincei (Italy)
- Odile Macchi – Académie des Sciences (France; past chair),
- Pierre Lena – Académie des Sciences (France; honorary chair),
- Maija Katariina Aksela – Council of Finnish Academies
- Gerd Bergman – The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
- Benő Csapó – Hungarian Academy of Sciences
- Lena Kjellen – The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
- Cliona Murphy – Royal Irish Academy
- David Rios – Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences
- Petra Skiebe-Corrette, Free University Berlin (Germany)
Other Members
- Ruth Arnon – Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
- Maria Duca – Academy of Sciences of Moldova
- Florin G. Filip – Romanian Academy
- Athanasis Fokas – Academy of Athens
- Maksym Galchenko/Stanislav Dovgiy – National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (alternate)
- Ingolf Hertel/Randolf Menzel- Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities (alternate)
- Léo Houziaux – Académie Royale de Belgique
- Guiseppe Macino – The National Academy of the Lincei
- Søeren Peter Olesen – Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
- Miljenko Peric/Milosav Marjanovic – Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
- Bernhard Plunger – Austrian Academy of Sciences
- Stanko Popović – Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
- Dukagjin Pupovci – Kosova Academy of Sciences and Arts
- Gerhard Schaefer – German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
- Svein Sjoberg – Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
- Perko Vukotic – Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts
- Jan Zima / Jaroslav Pánek – Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (alternates)
- Geoffrey Boulton – The Royal Society of Edinburgh
Members of the working group with international participants at the 2015 AEMASE conference
Selected Recent Publications
AEMASE Conference on Science Education – Conference Report
AEMASE Conference on Science Education – Conference Report Primer
ALLEA-RIA report Academia-Industry Alliance: Joint efforts in Science Education
ALLEA report: A renewal of science education in Europe. Views and Actions of National Academies
Recent Meetings
28-29 January 2018
ALLEA Working Group Meeting
Royal Danish Academy, Copenhagen
3-4 October 2017
18 September 2016
ALLEA Working Group Meeting, Rome
20 November 2015
AEMASE Working Group Meeting, Budapest
18 December 2014
AEMASE Network Meeting, Paris
17 December 2014
ALLEA Working Group Meeting, Paris
19/20 May 2014
International AEMASE Conference on Science Education, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome
20/21 November 2013
Open Session on “Industry-school-Academy alliance: Joint efforts in science education, The Royal Irish Academy, Dublin
10 December 2012
Meeting of the Core Group, The National Academy of the Lincei, Rome
