the teaching

of sciences in
alrican universities

Report of the Seminar

on the Teaching of Basic Sciences
in African Universities
Rabat, 13 to 22 December 1962

unesco
T h e development of higher education
Titles in this series
Access to Higher Education,Vol. I, by Frank Bowles (Director’s Report)
Access to Higher Education, Vol. II (National Studies)
(These two volumes are published jointly by Unesco and the
International Association of Universities)
The Development of Higher Education in Africa
The Teaching of Sciences in African Universities
 Published in 1964 by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Place de Fontenoy, Paris-7=
Printed by Ceuterick, Belgium

8 Unesco 1964
Printed in Belgium
ED(NS).63/XVII.3/A
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

ESSENTIAL CONCLUSIONS A N D RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE RABAT SEMINAR. . 9

PART ONE. REPORT OF THE SEMINAR

I. Pedagogical problems . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
II. Problems of organization and administration . . . . . . 25
List of participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

PART TWO. BASIC DOCUMENTS

1. Some important aspects of science teaching at African universities, by

T. L. Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
II. The university teaching of mathematics as a basis for the experimental
sciences, by K.Tatarkiewicz . . . . . . . . . . 47
III. On the teaching of physics as one of the basic sciences at university level,
by G . Holton . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
IV.A dynamic approach to university chemistry teaching, by M.Brenner . , 86
V. Geology teaching at university level, by G.P. Gorshkov . . . 93
VI. Teaching of biology at university level in Africa, by J. Mikge . . 97
 INTRODUCTION

In December 1962, a group of participants from English-, French- and Arabic-

speaking countries of Africa met in Morocco to discuss their c o m m o n problems
related to the teaching of basic sciences at university level.
The occasion was the first Unesco Seminar on Basic Science Teaching in African
Universities. Since this was a pioneering effort, the programme was frankly an
exploratory one. The thirty-four participants from nineteen African countries were
all persons actively engaged in teaching the basic sciences in African universities
and were united in their recognition of the essential role of science education for
nations striving to achieve a high level of social and economic development. They
also realized that knowledge of the present situation was necessary before a rational
plan of action to meet the science education needs of Africa could be drawn up.
The seminar provided the necessary opportunity for formal and informal communi-
cation about what is being taught and how it is being taught in the different science
faculties of Africa. The task of discussing all the basic sciences and the needs of all
African universities was obviously too great to be dealt with at a single conference,
and for this reason discussions were limited to some selected problems. The
unanimous wish was expressed therefore that seminars on each of the basic sciences
should be organized in the future.
The purpose of the seminar was to examine problems related to the teaching of
mathematics,physics, chemistry, biology and geology at university level, with special
emphasis on African needs. Unesco commissioned one expert in each of these fields,
from countries outside Africa, 1 to write working papers for the seminar that would
focus the attention of the participants on the general problems of teaching the basic
sciences,as seen by experts from other parts of the world, and lead to a consideration
of what approaches and solutions were adaptable to African needs. These five basic
documents on science teaching appear as sections11 to VI, inclusive, in Part Two.
Several of these experts were present in Rabat as consultants and shared in the
exchange of experiences on an international scale.
Through a questionnaire prepared by Unesco and distributed to the participants
further useful information was obtained concerning the science faculties in their
respective countries. Some of this material was used in the preparation of the
document by T.L. Green (p. 37-46).

1. Except for Professor J. Mibge from Dakar University, Senegal.

7
Introduction

The ‘Essential Conclusions and Recommendations’ which follow give a summary

of the most important ideas which were the outcome of the discussions.
The seminar, in which representatives of the United Nations and Specialized
Agencies and several observers from non-governmental organizations also partici-
pated, was opened by H.E. Youssef Ben Abbes, Minister of Education of Morocco.
The closing session was presided over by H.E. M o h a m m e d El Fasi, Rector of the
M o h a m m e d V University. Professor V. Kovda, Director of the Department of
Natural Sciences represented the Director-General of Unesco.
The agenda included two parts: (a) problems related to the teaching of each
particular science; (b) inter-disciplinary problems and those related to organization
and administration. The seminar elected the following officers:
Chairman of the seminar and general rapporteur: Henri Arzelies (Morocco).
Chairmen and rapporteurs for particular topics:
(a) Problems related to each particular science
Mathematics: Alemayehu Haile (Ethiopia), chairman; Arsène Poaty (Congo-
Brazzaville), rapporteur.
Physics: Edward L. Yates (Rhodesia and Nyasaland), chairman; M o h a m m e d
Aduan Zmerli (Tunisia), rapporteur.
Chemistry: Mustapha Hassan (Soudan), chairman ; Yusef Salah El-Din Kotb
(U.A.R.), rapporteur.
Geology: Mr. M o h a m m e d Diouri (Morocco), chairman; Hajjoub Msougar (Mo-
rocco), rapporteur.
Biology: Mr. Hussein Said (U.A.R.) and Antoine D e Bont (Congo-Léopoldville),
chairmen; Mrs. Gladys A n o m a (Ivory Coast) and Albert Sasson (Morocco),
rapporteurs.
(b) Inter-disciplinary problems and those related to organization and administration
Relations between science teaching in secondary schools and university science
teaching: Rachid Oussedik (Algeria) chairman; Pie N’Dayizigamiye (Burundi)
and Denis Morgan (Basutoland), rapporteurs.
University-government co-operation: Henri Masson (Senegal),- Chairman; Ebenezer
Laing (Ghana), rapporteur.
N e w teaching methods: Arthur Hunter (Kenya), chairman; Jean Charette (Congo-
Lhpoldville), rapporteur.
Place of research and teaching; and training of university teaching staff: Ebenezer
Laing (Ghana), chairman; Mrs. Gladys A n o m a (Ivory Coast), rapporteur.
Co-operation between African universities: Bede Nwoye Okigbo (Nigeria), chair-
man; Albert Delvaux (Burundi), rapporteur.

The participants wished to express their deep gratitude to the Director-General

of Unesco w h o was responsiblefor having organized the seminar which had presented
an opportunity for the discussion of problems of major importance for the
development of science teaching in African universities.
They also desired to express their warm appreciation both to the Government
of the Kingdom of Morocco for the generous welcome and effective co-operation
of the Moroccan authorities, and to the Rector and the scientific staff of the
M o h a m m e d V University whose active assistance and kind hospitality contributed
so greatly to the success of the seminar and to the creation of a friendly international
atmosphere.

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect Unesco’s point of view.

8
 ESSENTIAL CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
OF THE RABAT SEMINAR

In order to improve science teaching in African universities the seminar makes

the following recommendations and requests Unesco’s aid and assistance in this
field.

GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Meetings devoted to each specific science should be periodically organized:

(a) conferences at which participants would exchange the results of thpir
experience in teaching methods, course content and laboratory work ; (b) extended
seminars on recent developments in each science.
2. National or regional scientific societies should be formed for the purpose of
establishing and maintaining contacts with international scientific unions in
the field of research and teaching.
3. The relevant authorities in African States are urged to hasten the setting up
of national bodies (national scientific councils, academies of science, etc.),
to organize and co-ordinatescientitic research.
4. Unesco is requested to give support by all possible means to the protection of
ecological stations and of animal or plant species that are dying out.
5. It is recommended that a specialized agency, Unesco for example, collect
information which would make it possible to evaluate the admission standards
for different universities and to learn more about the educational systems of
different countries in relation to higher education.
6. It would be useful if the organization concerned could draw up a list of existing
trained personnel and those who will be available in five years and in ten years
time. This list is absolutely essential for drafting a plan designed to encourage stu-
dies in specialities that are lagging behind and for organizing effective assistance.

BASIC TEACHING AND AFRICANIZATION OF CURRICULA

7. The essential aim of education should be to develop the scientific attitude and
the ability to use the scientific method. This is particularly important in the
modern age, when the body of scientific knowledge undergoes considerable
development during a single lifetime. Our students must become capable,
through their studies, of adapting themselves to subsequent changes. This

Y
Essential conclusions and recommendations

orientation of education implies that the accent should be placed in all fields
on principles and methods.
8. O n the other hand, and this is not a contradiction, this basic training should
be inspired and guided by local conditions. In writing textbooks, authors should
take care to use language that will appeal to the student's imagination. In other
words, scientific concepts should be reformulated, using analogies and images
based on local nature and culture.
9. The Africanization of curricula seems particularly necessary in geology and
biology. However, and all delegates insisted on this point, Africanization should
never lead us to forget the universal nature of education. In biology, as in other
subjects, a leading place must be given to unifying principles.
10. There is an urgent need to set up supply bodies responsible for providing whole,
live and preserved specimens (as well as slides of zoological sections) for teaching.

RELATIONS BETWEEN THE CLASSICAL DISCIPLINES AND NEW DISCIF'LINES

1 1. The various classical disciplines have increasingly numerous and complex

relationships. The relations between physics, chemistry and biology are drawing
ever closer; they have led to the creation of new sciences such as biochemistry
and biophysics. These sciences should be given a leading place in our universities
through the establishment of teaching and laboratory chairs.

SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

12. It is essential that universities and secondary schools collaborate closely in the
preparation of modern curricula for secondary schools and in the training of
science teachers.
13. Any committee responsible for modifying an education system must take into
account the points of view both of the university and the secondary school.
The general concensus was that both systems proceed from the same guiding
principles, that there is no hiatus. Thus from the secondary level the student
should gradually be trained in the scientific attitude and not merely in the
acquisition of knowledge. The need for m o d e m training is obvious in higher
education and it should be recognized as equally important in secondary
education. The only difference is a difference in level.
14. It is essential in the m o d e m world that a minimum general scientific training
should be given to everyone. Specialization,and particularly the division between
scientists and non-scientistsshould not occur too soon; it was also recommended
that the division should never be absolute.

TEACHING AND RESEARCH

15. A university teacher must necessarily be engaged in research work. Research

is an essential condition for the continuous development of the intellectual
standard of teaching staff, and for a living education adapted to the modern
world.
16. Teacher training for science teachers is often neglected. It is strongly recom-
mended that seminars and meetings between teachers be arranged to permit
exchange of teaching experience and discussion of problems.

10
 Essential conclusions and recommendations
._ ~

ORIENTATION A N D CONDUCI OF RESEARCH

17. The orientation of research should be decided in relation to African needs,

while preserving the universities’ freedom in this field. In no case should basic
research be abandoned or decreased. O n the contrary, it should be developed
in harmony with applied research.
18. It is essential to ensure the continuity of research, which is closely bound up
with the stability of university staff. Ways must be found (i.e. suitable conditions)
to encourage national and expatriate specialists to remain as long as possible
at the university. Foreign professors are too often appointed for short periods
which do not allow them to develop and continue research work.

Il
 P A R T O N E

REPORT OF THE SEMINAR

In Chapters I and II that follow1 will be found the practical, or what might be termed
the ‘visible’, results of the discussions. This should help the technicians of education,
with the support of a specific text, to influence their respective administrations by
suggesting internal reforms, Unesco assistance: collaboration with other States, and
so on, in particular fields.
But there are other results, perhaps more important although they are ‘invisible’.
The personal contact8 established in this way, many of which will be lasting, cannot
fail to further understanding between nations and contribute to the harmony sought
after by all men of good will. There can be no doubt that in this respect education
plays the principal part. If young people the world over are educated by teachers who
regard the different countries as the voices in a single choir, who lay stress on the
ridiculous and totallj outmoded nafure, in fhe Space Age, of hostility betweea peoples,
mankind will embark on a course that is beneficial to all.

1. Text prepared by Professor Henri Arzelies, in collaboration with the Unesco Secretariat,
on the basis of the reports of the meeting and drawing also on the material contained
in the working papers for the seminar.

14
 I. PEDAGOGICAL PROBLEMS

GENERAL PROBLEMS

GENERAL PURPOSE OF EDUCATION; THE SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDE

The essential aim of education should be to develop the scientific attitude and the
ability to use the scientific method.
Obviously, this attitude rests on the acquisition of a certain complement of
knowledge; there can be no attitude or principles in the abstract. But the volume
of knowledge must not, or should not, overwhelm the student.This idea was expressed
by the French moralist, Montaigne, in the classic phrase: ‘A well-formed mind
rather than a well-packed one’.
Every student, even if he is later to undertake technical studies, must first receive
a basic training. The technical applications that follow, whatever their importance,
must be secondary. It is inadvisable to adopt a purely utilitarian attitude too soon;
a solid basic training is bound to have a good influence on later specialization, and
even on the speed of learning.
This is particularly important in the modern age, when the body of scientific
knowledge undergoes considerable development during the span of a single lifetime.
Our students become capable, through their studies, of adapting themselves to
changes.
This orientation of education implies that in all fields the accent should be placed
on principles and methods.
For instance, in chemistry, the study of monographs should not be regarded as
an end in itself, but as a means of demonstrating and learning to understand the
structures and mechanisms of reaction.
W e must offer a truly modern education, not by merely adding new subjects each
year, but by constantly rethinking education in relation to the current state of the
sciences. Our students must become the scientists of tomorrow, not of yesterday
or the day before.
Finally, several delegates insisted that the development of the scientific attitude
must explicitly include the social training that such an attitude demands. The student
should be encouraged to apply the scientific attitude both in his personal life and
in his life as a citizen, which would imply a certain struggle against superstition

15
 Reoort of the seminar

and prejudice. However, other delegates considered that caution should be exercised
in this respect: how was one to distinguish between prejudices and respectable
customs ? The distinction was not always self-evident and, in particular, the scientific
attitude should not be confused with the attitude of European civilization towards
certain problems.

THE CLASSICAL DISCIPLINES AND THF. NEW DISCIPLINES

Throughout the seminar stress was laid on the need for modern education, one
aspect of such modernization being concerned with the relations between the various
classical disciplines. It was strongly advised-and this is particularly feasible in the
African universities which are being set up or developed-that rigid and outmoded
compartmentalization which in no way reflects the real world should be avoided.
The relations between physics, chemistry and biology are drawing ever closer,
and have led to the creation of new sciences, such as biochemistry and biophysics.
These should be given a leading place in our universities through the establishment
of teaching and laboratory chairs.

THE PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF SCIENCES

There was much support for the suggestion that courses or seminars on the philosophy
of science (so far restricted to the study of philosophy) be introduced into the cycle
of scientific studies. In physics and chemistry especially, there is great need for this
kind of training. General concepts such as those of time and space have become the
object of study and definition. Indeed, they present scientists with difficulties to
which they are not accustomed. It is therefore highly important, in certain theories,
to give these terms a precise meaning, and not the ordinary or philosophical meaning.
An examination of physics theories and of the concepts of causality and determinism,
etc., is also essential to modern physicists.
In geology and biology the problems of biological time, transformation, etc.
would gain from an examination as a whole. Obviously these courses should be given
by a professor trained in scientific research and well-versed in the philosophy of
science. The first condition is essential, since the aim is not to transplant certain
courses from the philosophy faculties to the science faculties, but to create a new
scientific education. There is often a wide difference of attitude to such problems
between philosophers and scientists.
The history of science is much less important. It is inadvisable to use the historical
method of instruction for what we must teach our students is the science of today,
not its history. The historical form of presentation is only very rarely the best and,
in any case, it would either be serious and much too long, or it would be superficial.
O n the other hand, it is desirable that, in the form of observations or annexes to
his course, the student should be given some idea of the historical development
of the question. It is not a bad thing to show that certain results which are now
common knowledge were once discussed at length (for instance, the existence of
two categories of charge, positive and negative).

AFRICANIZATION OF CURRICULA

W e have just emphasized the point that all good scientific education should have
a general character. However, and this is not a contradiction, this basic training
should be inspired and guided by local conditions.
The Africanization of curricula seems particularly necessary in geology and

16
 PedagoFìcal problems

biology. No professor would today give the same botany course in Africa as in
Europe, but a good deal of progress has still to be made. The importance of choosing
the maximum number of examples from the surrounding environment must be
stressed constantly; and of course the richness and diversity of African flora and
fauna facilitate such a choice.
All delegates insisted nevertheless that Africanization should never lead us to
forget the universal nature of education. In biology, as in other subjects, a leading
place must be given to unifying principles.
The problems arising in connexion with the Africanization of curricula are dealt
with in the chapters devoted to each particular science.

TEXTBOOKS1 IN NATIONAL LANGUAGES

All African countries represented at the seminar n o w use French or English as

the vehicle of science although strong tendencies may be observed, particularly in
the Arab countries, towards developing the use of national languages and some
textbooks are prepared in these languages.
In this connexion, the following technical question arose: shodd mathematical
formulae also be ‘nationalized’,i.e., should the local alphabet be used in place of
the Latin and Greek alphabets? Japan and the U.S.S.R., which use Latin and Greek
letters for formulae, were cited as examples.
No agreement was reached on this point. It was considered that this was a purely
national affair. Decisions will be tested in practice.

ACCELERATED TRAINING

In view of African needs, it is often desirable to consider the use of crash programmes
in certain areas of education. But-and this was one of the main themes of the
seminar-accelerated training should never be carried on to the detriment of the
standard of education. Certain delegates fearing that such training might lead to
a lowering of standards even expressed their opposition in principle.
However, the duration of certain studies might be limited by using new methods
and eliminating many details. Standards can be maintained in spite of decreasing
the volume of knowledge taught.

NEW TEACHING METHODS

Teaching machines

These gave rise to heated reactions and discussions. The idea consists in dividing
the information to be transmitted into a series of progressive stages which can be
taught successively and immediately checked. If the pupil’s reply is correct, he
proceeds to the following stage; if not, the machine allows him to discover and
rectify his mistake.
This techniqueinvolves the preparation of a programme. One of the most interesting
aspects is that the machine can actually be dispensed with, the programme-learning
manual being sufficient.
._

1. Noie. A discussion arose on the meaning of the word ‘textbook’.In fact, a distinction
must be drawn between the study (a general work, very full) and the textbook (essentially
intended for students). There is also a type of text that might be termed ‘Sources for
the study of . . .’;it contains various sorts of information. for instance, bibliographies
specially chosen to facilitate the preparation of a course.

17
Report of the seminar
--
Reactions to teaching machines are usually emotional. In fact, there is no question
of completely replacing the teacher by a machine, thus delivering the students,
bound hand and foot,to robots. But the use of these machines can free the teacher
from many of the tiresome tasks of transmitting knowledge, leaving him a greater
freedom for his principal role, which is to train the mind.
The advantage of the method has already been demonstrated by its use in the
United States (more than a thousand machines) ; large-scale planning also exists
in the U.S.S.R. In education, as in other fields such as state management, most
of the brainwork can advantageously be carried out by a machine.
W h y not study the introduction of such methods in the African countries, in
relation to the desire for accelerated training? The question stands; it would be
unscientific to set it aside out of a purely emotional prejudice.
The discussion on the use of teaching machines produced the following criticisms
and replies.
1. The true task of education is to train inventive and creative minds but this cannot
be accomplished by inflexible methods.
Reply. Before w e can become creative, w e must learn a large number of facts.
The limited role of the machine lies here.
2. Teaching-machinesare better for teachers than for students.
Reply. For teachers the usefulness of machines, and of this method in general,
is beyond doubt. To begin with, no textbook has ever been written with the
enormous advantage, for the author, of knowing at every stage the pupil’s
reaction to the text he is writing. Further, it is always an excellent thing for the
teacher to clarify his aims in the teaching of the various disciplines.
3. The supporters of this method are not themselves in agreement on the psycho-
logical theories underlying it.
Reply. Controversy is not necessarily a weakness: it does not always hinder
progress, and is sometimes a condition for progress.
4. This method m a y be useful for secondary education, but deíjnitely not for
university teaching.
Reply. It can be useful for certain limited aims of university teaching; for
instance, to help a student to catch up on a subject, such as trigonometry or
calculus, which is holding him back in other courses.

Television

Attention may be drawn to several uses: (a) to reach a wider public through broad-
casting in the normal sense; mass education is a problem which the university
should not overlook, and this problem is particularly acute in Africa; (b) in a large
class, it can be used to show all students the details of an experiment set up on a
table; (c) for self-criticism of a lecture or demonstration.
A closed-circuittelevisionsystem would thereforeoften be valuable.Thereare grounds
for hesitation over the cost of the installation and for wondering whether it might not
be preferable to use the funds available for the purchase of experimental equipment.

Projectors

There are three uses: they can replace the blackboard in the presentation of compli-
cated diagrams or diagrams which gain from being shown in great detail. Films of
a few minutes duration can be used to illustrate a particular fact in an ordinary
course, and special showings of films of twenty to thirty minutes duration may
be given as a supplement to the course.

18
 ~
Pedagogical problems

The great advantage of the film is the freedom it gives in relation to time, space,
scale, danger, etc. The obstacles to the use of fìlms are mainly technical: the need
for a dark room and the time lost in handling the film.These difficulties can be
solved, however, by using a loop film-projector which is extremely simple to handle
and moderate in price. The films are silent, so that the teacher can make whatever
comments he judges appropriate.

Experimental or ‘take-home’kits

These kits, which the student can use to set up his o w n experiment, have been
criticized on three grounds: they are too expensive, they are limited in application,
and the experiments can be carried out by other means.
In reply to these criticisms it was stated that inexpensive kits are available both
for secondary and for university education. Their great advantage is that they allow
the student to take his experiment home with him,and spend as much time on it
as he wishes. Restrictions must be imposed on certain chemistry experiments which
might be dangerous. A further difficulty was pointed out: in certain countries living
conditions for students (e.g., dormitories shared by several people) render the use
of take-home kits impossible.

PROBLEMS R E L A T I N G TO EACH OF THE BASIC S C I E N C E S

MATHEMATICS

The discussion dealt only with the teaching of mathematics to non-mathematicians.

Since the latter make up 90 per cent of all students this fact must guide the direction
of studies and curricula.
W e are thus concerned with mathematics at the service of the other sciences,
the training of mathematicians being a highly specialized subject that was not tackled.
Special courses must be provided for non-mathematicians and curricula for such
courses should be drawn up in relation to needs, while preserving the rigour required
of mathematics teaching. This is what Professor Tatarkiewicz, in his background
paper, calls the postulate of rigour. Incidentally, this rigour should not be trans-
formed into a quite unnecessary axiomatization. Only committees consisting of
mathematicians and users can draw up acceptable curricula.
Courses for non-mathematicians, whatever the type of instruction, can be placed
in two categories: (a) courses for physicists and certain chemists; (b) courses for
other users (biology,medicine, geology).
The general outline in the Tatarkiewicz report provides a widely accepted basis
for the study and orientation of curricula for both types of course. In particular,
all the biologists stressed the need for a mathematical minimum, and protested
against the out-dated conception that only people with no grasp of mathematics
study the ‘natural sciences’.
For the first type of course (physicists and certain chemists), it is difficult to give
precise information, and the classification proposed by Mr. Tatarkiewicz is only
one possibility. Moreover, a distinction must be drawn between general training
designed to raise the student’s standard and the choice of subjects to be dealt with;

1. See also section II (p. 47), ‘The university teaching of mathematics as a basis for the
experimental sciences ’,by K.Tatarkiewicz.

19
Report of the seminar -
this latter aspect is less important and the choice may vary. The important point
is the standard.
W h o should teach these mathematics courses ? Teachers who are well-acquainted
with the turn of mind and the needs of those for w h o m they are intended. A mathe-
matician concerned with work of axiomatization is not suitable, nor is a laboratory
technician. The decision depends on local possibilities and, above all, on the nature
of the course.
In mathematics courses intended for the physicist, the ideal solution would seem
to be to have half the teaching given by a mathematician interested in physics and
half by a theoretical physicist essentially concerned with mathematical physics.
This system has been operating for several years in certain faculties to the complete
satisfaction of physicist users.
For the time being the same system seems more difficult to apply to mathematics
for biologists, purely because of the shortage of teachers. Here, too, it would be
desirable that certain aspects of mathematics be presented by the users themselves.

PHYSICS 1

Avoiding rigid categories

The division of physics according to the old terminology or on the lines of historical
development is sometimes still useful, particularly at the beginning of studies. But
it is essential to abandon it as soon as the need to do so is felt, and for that reason
administrative patterns should not be restrictive.
Consequently, starting at a certain level, instruction is not necessarily given in
optics or electricity, but the results of the Maxwell equations are developed; the
dynamics of vibrations are studied, not acoustics or electrical engineering. This
kind of economy of thought must at all costs be introduced into teaching.

Theoretical and experimental teaching

In basic training, the two aspects should be closely combined.
The experimental aspect covers two types of teaching between which a distinction
should be made: (a) classroom experiments that are an integralpart, or are sometimes
even the basis of the course (in this case it was suggested that the lecture-room
should also be a practical room, instead of having merely a bench for experiments);
(b) practical work carried out for several hours at a stretch by the students (this
work is distinct from the course, but should be prepared and presented in the form
of lectures given by the directors of practical studies). It might occasionally be
useful for the student to start on an experiment before receiving any theoretical
introduction; however, reactions must be carefully examined before this Socratic
method is more generally adopted.
Once the basic training has been acquired, it is at present desirable to continue
specialization and direct the student either towards theoretical studies or towards
experimental work; but in no case should the two be mutually exclusive.

Physics at the service of the other sciences

T w o conceptions were discussed: a single course c o m m o n to non-physicists, or
several different courses adapted to the various sciences.

1. See also section III (p. 56), ‘ O n the teaching of physics as one of the basic sciences at
university level’, by G.Holton.

20
 Pedagogical problems

Support for the first was based mainly on practical arguments: the concentration
of effort would help to make up, to some extent, for the shortage of personnel.
However, this solution cannot be regarded as ideal, and its adaptation to certain
universities, particularly French-speaking universities, comes up against objections
of principle.
Specialization should be taken even further; for non-physicists,at least two types
of course are needed, probably three: (a) chemistry requires a high-level training
in physics, which calls for knowledge of the corresponding mathematical language
(a chemist must be capable, for example, of applying the Schrödinger equation;
therefore he needs precise knowledge of differential equations and partial derivatives;
(b) biology and geology require instruction at a lower level, and with a different
orientation (let us say, as an indication of the level, that the student must be able
to handle the simple differential equations of physics, and apply statistics and
probability theories); and (c) medical students also require instruction adapted to
their needs. For the last the mathematical level may be lower than in the preceding
cases, but nevertheless the use of simple integration or differentiation calculations
is involved. The choice of subjects will be based on medical needs; for instance,
acoustics will be studied in relation to the hearing mechanism, and so on. In any
case, the strictly utilitarian conception of an applied science course (learning to
use a particular piece of apparatus) was rejected. The course should include basic
training, and the study of general ideas and theories as a basic culture. However,
it was recommended that popularization be avoided, and therefore that the number
of general questions studied be limited.
With regard to the teaching of physics to non-physicists, the conclusion was
reached that all students, whatever their specialization, should be given precise
knowledge in certain fields; they should also be educated to an 3ppropriate level,
which would subsequently allow them to broaden their knowledge by individual
study.

CHEMISTRY 1

Teaching in chemistry can help to solve problems of health, agriculture, industry,

animal and mineral resources. This implies the need for a grounding in practical
work. Obviously, this does not mean merely training in techniques; techniques
must be used with intelligence and critical understanding.
The chemists particularly stressed the importance of the recommendations already
given above, and that
Discussion should be encouraged among African chemistry teachers on the question
of the relative emphasis to be given to principles and to factual knowledge.
The scientific attitude and the ability to use the scientific method should be developed
in African students.
Students should be provided with a set of principles and a fund of functional facts.
A n important place should be given to physical chemistry. Molecular models
and reaction mechanisms should be given special attention and the role of mono-
graphs reduced.
The student’s basic skills in laboratory manipulation should be developed, both
qualitatively and quantitatively.
A chemistry student must be trained in a way that prepares him for work as a
chemist in his own country, giving him the general knowledge that will serve as a

1. See also section IV (p. 86), ‘A dynamic approach to university chemistry teaching’,
by M.Brenner.

21
Report of the seminar ~~ .-_
- ~ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . -

basis for local specializations. Countries should therefore adapt their curricula
to their o w n needs.
As an example of such adaptation, we may quote from a note by Professor
M.Crawford, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Makerere University College:
‘Thenew B.Sc. degrees in chemistry of the University of East Africa will be taught
at Makerere University College with: (a) physical bias, and (b) organic bias.
‘Those chemists who go in for teaching geological or physico-chemical work
will profit by the course with the physical bias; those w h o pursue medical, agricultural,
nutritional or toxicological chemical courses will benefit by the additional organic
chemistry in the organic-biased course.
‘Once the student has eventually opted for chemistry, he must then receive not
necessarily the ideal training as seen from an international point of view but a
training which will equip him for the work required of chemists in his country, in
this case, East Africa. ’
In his subsequent career, the chemist will have to make accurate analyses of
agricultural, botanical, mineral, or forensic samples.
Chemistry courses for those who are not intending to specialize in this subject
should also include the basic principles of chemistry; concepts relating to the
student’s future specialization are an application of these principles.

H o w should chemistry be taught ?

Chemistry is an experimental science. The African student must find out for himself
that he can act in a scientific way by combining ideas with facts. This brings him
power to change his environment. What better place for him to make this discovery
than in a chemistry laboratory? Here he must first be allowed to make observations
and record them accurately. Then he should think about them-what do they
mean?-in what way can they be organized?-what new questions do they suggest?
Ideas are read in texts and discussed in the classroom. The student gains insight
into h o w these ideas may explain the facts he observed in the laboratory. This
process of encountering facts and ideas alternates with a rising tempo, and before
long the student gains a genuine feeling for chemistry as a dynamic process, in which
facts are unearthed in the laboratory and ideas are applied to those facts to arrange
them into orderly patterns which give them meaning. This is a proper way to relate
theoretical and practical study, and by doing it in this way, the student himself
develops as a scientific worker and not as a technician or purely as a rote-memorizer.

GEOLOGY 1

The presence of abundant and as yet under-exploited resources in the African

substratum makes it essential to accord geology teaching the importance it deserves
in order to ensure rapid training in all African countries of a large number of
qualified specialists in the following branches:
1. University-level geologists, with extensive scientific knowledge, capabIe of under-
taking scientific work in the field of geology.
2. Prospector-geologists, capable of carrying out geological surveys and prospecting
ore deposits, trained at specialized technical schools.
3. Mining engineers capable of practical work in mines and on mining sites, i.e.
engineers who can organize the exploitation of ore deposits. These engineers
will receive training in technical schools or advanced institutes.

1. See also section V (p. 93), ‘Geology teaching at university level’, by G.P. Gorshkov.

22
 Pedaaoaical uroblems

4. Geologist-engineerscapable of carrying out preliminary studies of sites on which

buildings, roads, railways, bridges, dams, etc. will be constructed.
5. Middle-grade specialists (mining technicians, etc.) trained in technical schools
at a level half-way between secondary and higher education.
It should be stressed that in geology teaching special attention must be paid to the
study of geophysical prospecting methods, the geology of oil and hydrogeology.
While on this subject, it should not be forgotten that in the training of specialists
practical instruction should count as much as, if not more than,theoretical education.
Excursions and expeditions should therefore be organized as frequently as possible
in order to give students experience of work in the field.
To ensure the rapid training of African specialists,Unesco’s assistance is requested:
1. To establish in Africa universities and specialized technical schools in the various
branches of geology.
2. To develop establishments already existing in Africa, whose libraries and supplies
of teaching and research equipment need to be supplemented.
3. T o send professors and specialists from other countries to Africa.
4. To send African students to the best-equipped foreign universities and technical
schools.
5. To prepare African geology textbooks, a first-priority task which requires the
collaboration of all specialists. Some texts of this kind, precise and detailed,
already exist in South Africa.
6. To set up an African geological association.
7. To establish an institute through which exchanges of publications, geological
charts and geological collections could be made between African geologists and
geologists in other parts of the world.
8. To publish and disseminate the work entitled Survey of the Naiurul Resources
of the African Continent, prepared by the Natural Sciences Department of Unesco.

BIOLOGY 1

Delegates thought it advisable not to separate animal from plant biology. The same
general problems arise in both cases.
All participants insisted on the need to adapt curricula to the African environment,
from which the maximum number of examples should be chosen.
The following difficultieswere pointed out: (a) current textbooks describe European
species;(b) it is not always easy to obtain a sufficient number of animals when they
are needed; (c) in hot humid climates, it is essential, but difficult, to effect the
preservation of specimens rapidly ; (d) certain replacement species have not been
studied in detail, with the result that their anatomy has not yet been fully described;
this is a task that local universities should undertake as soon as possible.
Naturally, some time will be required before suitable textbooks taking local
animals as examples can be published. Moreover, in a vast country such as Nigeria,
the difference in conditions of the various regions of the country may mean that
the species chosen as models for study are not the same in all areas. For example,
the savannah region of northern Nigeria is quite different, ecologically, from the
forest zones located nearer the coast.
It is urgent that supply bodies be set up as soon as possible for the purpose of
providing the animals needed in education. These supply bodies should maintain
close relations with universities possessing the qualified staff needed to direct them,

1. See also section VI (p. 97), ‘Teaching of biology at university level in Africa’, by
J. Mikge.

23
Reoort of the seminar

and also with local fishery laboratories (which are already supplying unofficial
assistance), which can provide marine specimens.
They must also meet the rapidly increasing needs of schools. They should be in
a position not only to supply whole, live and preserved specimens, but also slides
of zoological sections; jn fact, most schools do not possess the necessary equipment
to make slides and preparations.
Air-conditioned rooms will, of course, be necessary for the preparation and
preservation of most materials and slides.
At least at the beginning,it is difficult to imagine that this body would be financially
independent, even if universities and schools, as is only natural, paid for what they
received. Initially, therefore, a governmental subsidy would be needed.
Once this body was operating normally, it should be able to satisfy customers
outside West Africa. Most of the zoology departments of universities in Europe,
America and other temperate zones need tropical animals for advanced studies,
particularly insects and reptiles. Anyone who has tried to obtain the necessary
animals for advanced zoologicalstudies in Europe knows h o w difficult it is; neverthe-
less, they are abundant in tropical countries. The sale of such specimens in large
quantities to countries all over the world might therefore be envisaged. Thanks to
aircraft, the transport of these animals is very easy, and it is even possible to bring
live specimens to Europe or America in a few hours. The countries of West Africa
could take advantage of this situation, since it would bring them foreign currency.
If contacts were established with a large undertaking, the volume of business might
be considerable.
All biologists insisted that biology laboratories should have botanical and zoolo-
gical gardens, and that sufficient resources be made available for their upkeep.
Excursions were considered to be a particularly effective means of education,
capable of giving rise to a sense of vocation. The wish was expressed that they
should be arranged more often.
Delegates suggested the establishment of herbaria, including both local plants
and plants from other countries, and of experimental gardens and urged the
protection of ecological stations and of animal or plant species that are dying out.
Participants expressed the wish that Unesco should further the translation of
basic works and undertake a survey of periodicals concerning Africa.

24
 II. PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZATION
A N D ADMINISTRATION

COLLABORATION BETWEEN UNIVERSITY A N D GOVERNMENT

Liaison

The scientific future of a country, and thus its whole future, depends on the relations
between the university and the government.
Universities have widely varying status with regard to their degree of independence
(full independence, financial independence, etc.). But, regardless of this status, it
is essential that relations be established in a climate of co-operation and collabora-
tion, and that such collaboration be close and effective.
A liaison body is essential, whatever its form and title (Higher Education Council,
University Senate, etc.). This question was discussed in detail at Tananarive 1 and
reference should be made to the documents of that meeting.

Research and teaching

Participants unanimously accepted the principle that a university teacher is also,

necessarily, a specialist engaged on research work. Research is one of the two
activities of a science faculty;moreover, it is one of the conditions,perhaps the main
condition, for teaching that is alive and adapted to the modern world. The traditions
of old-established universities, which have a long history of teaching and research,
present a good balance in this respect, in spite of the diversity of systems. They
show that the teaching services imposed by administrations leave plenty of time
for research.
The solution to the shortage of senior teaching personnel in Africa must not
be sought in the elimination, even temporary, of research activities, for this would
lead to intellectual strangulation.
However, it would appear desirable not to make research activities in any way
exclusive. The educational training and improvement of higher education teachers
are very often neglected. While there can be no question of a training school, it

1. *Conclusionsand Recommendations’in: The Development of Higher Educafion in Africa

(Report of the Conference on the Development of Higher Education in Africa, Tananarive,
3 to 12 September 1962), Paris, Unesco, 1963.

25
Report of the seminar _- _~
would be desirable to organize seminars and meetings between different universities
at which teaching problems could be discussed and studied.

Orientation and conduct of research

The orientation of certain research activities should be considered and developed

in relation to African needs. For this purpose, govemments draw the attention of
the university to the economic situation and needs of the country; they may even
point to the urgent need for certain specific work. In fact, there is a tremendous
demand for applied research in Africa. Nevertheless. at the risk of prejudicing the
future, the meeting expressed a strong wish that the universities should maintain
their freedom, particularly with regard to the orientation of research.The initiation
and development of basic research should not be regarded as a luxury but as a vital
element in any university worthy of that name.
African universities cannot restrict themselves to purely utilitarian activities,
without becoming intellectually second-class institutions. They must remain on the
world scene, or enter into it, making their contribution on the same footing to the
work of all countries.
Attention was drawn to the fact that very often it is from fundamental research
that the most fruitful applications arise. An examination of works published by
African universities shows, however, that applied research is being carried on
everywhere and often constitutes the sole activity.
While supporting the development of this applied research to its full extent,
delegates were unanimous in desiring an increase in the African scientific output
of basic research.
Particularly in new African States, the sound functioning of research teams raises
the problem of continuity, which has become one of the most important practical
problems. A unanimous wish was expressed that the foreign teachers and research
workers w h o m Africa needs should not all pass like meteors and be replaced.
African universities would like their foreign staff not merely to touch d o w n on
African territory between plane stops. The desired stability can only be obtained
through the maintenance or the creation of a climate of suitable conditions. This
depends both on the African country and the country of origin.

Contacts between industry and university through the gouernntent

In the following text, industry means both industry and agriculture. The university
trains specialists for the country concerned. T h e country, in other words its industry,
must in turn offer at the right time the outlets that are needed, otherwise students
will go abroad.
It is therefore essential to establish contacts.Where they do not yet exist, bodies
should be created under the aegis of the government, in which both industry and the
universities are represented. If industrialists advise on studies and the creation of
establishments (such as engineering schools), local outlets will be easier to find.

Budgeting

The need for budgets adapted to modern needs was stressed. It is an advantage
to distinguish between operating budgets and special equipment budgets.
Even for independent universities, the State must intervene in financing,otherwise
scientific education will lag behind modern development.The major part of budgets
is allocated to requirements for personnel and equipment.

26
 Problems of organization and administration

Nevertheless, an important aspect consists in the budgetary section devoted to

publications. Because of the considerable development of research throughout
the world,reviews can no longer absorb articles by all research workers. All scientific
units now dispose of personal information media, varying from internal preliminary
reports (though issued to experts who request them) to reviews and publishsd
works. It is absolutely indispensable to have sufficient publishing facilities, other-
wise already obsolete results will be published late, thus falling outside the world
context.
Another important feature is the appropriation for participation in meetings.
Direct discussions between experts have become essential. Failure to participate
means cutting oneself off from international collaboration, which can result in
continuing, under difficulties, with a useless task. Obviously, participation in inter-
national scientific meetings should be offered to the most highly qualified specialists
at each country’s disposal.

Recruitment of teachers

The recruitment of expatriate teachers is important in the young African States,

and is a government responsibility. The following suggestions were made for the
improvement of the process of recruitment. A preliminary stage of direct contacts
between universities would facilitate the selection of suitable personnel. The
government would then intervene at the request of the university to make the
appointment effective. This process would be more rapid and effective than advance
announcements by governments to other governments of vacant chairs.
The government must create suitable conditions:both a moral climate and material
conditions which will allow for top-levelrecruitment. W e may here quote the Tanana-
rive recommendations: 1
‘... it is recognized that it would be impossible to offer sufficient incentives to
expatriates without topping their salaries.In order to meet these conditions, there
is general agreement that expatriates should receive special emoluments payable
preferably in their home countries by the government or agency that has recruited
them, or by the employing African institution of higher education. In addition, it
is important that adequate housing for the expatriate staff member and his family,
as well as arrangements for the education of his children, be provided. It is also
important to grant travel allowances for the expatriate staff to maintain connexions
with academic life in their o w n countries.’
W e would also like to repeat the Tananarive recommendation that there should
be no distinction, given equal qualifications, between foreign and local teachers:
‘... there is general agreement that equality in basic salary between expatriate
and African staff is essential for the well-being of the university and the maintenance
of a favourable academic atmosphere’. This, of course, in no way prejudges the
question of special removal and expatriation allowances.
It is up to governments to review the general living standards of teachers in order
to permit the return of the élite to teaching. Salaries for higher education teachers
should be comparable with those offered by industry for equivalent degrees and
abilities. However, salaries are only one aspect of the problem. The prestige of
teaching should be raised by all available means. This is absolutely essential for
the future of the country.

1. ‘Conclusionsand Recommendations’,op. cit.

27
Report of the seminar

Training for university-level teaching personnel

Obviously there can be no question of a school for senior education teachers. This
does not mean, however, that no teacher training is necessary. Unfortunately, only
too frequently a doctor of science may prove to be an excellent research worker
but a mediocre teacher. It would be desirable for teachers to volunteer for teacher
training courses, and that contacts be organized between different systems of edu-
cation. The example of informal discussions between participants in this seminar
provides an eloquent illustration of the value of such contacts.
Furthermore, promotion should take account not only of research work but of
teaching abilities and services rendered. It is out of the question to set up an
inspection system, but indirect means are available to promotion committees. Too
many of these committees scornfully reject any reference to teaching ability.

RELATIONS BETWEEN SECONDARY AND UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

Where difficulties arise, each places the blame on the other. Both are, in fact, right;
if secondary education trains students for the university, it is the university, at least
in part, which trains secondary teachers.
There can be no question of changing only one system, but each in relation to
the other. The point of view of ‘the other’ must never be lost sight of. Weshould
like to see detailed discussions within bodies where both systems are represented.
The guiding spirit of secondary education and higher education must proceed
from the same basic principles; there should be no hiatus between the two.
The general conclusions that emerged from discussions were as follows: science
teaching should develop the scientific attitude, starting at secondary level.
The information taught must be modernized at all levels. The curricula of secondary
school science and higher education science should not be determined by historical
considerations; it is inadmissible that the science of the last thirty years should be
reserved to higher education. The only difference between the two systems is a
difference in level. But this statement requires fuller explanation. Certain ideas
or principles, for example the uncertainty principle, can be introduced before the
students have reached the necessary mathematical level for a final enunciation.
In fact, the work of the subconscious in the understanding of an idea is most
important, but it requires time and the subconscious must be given material for
thought at an early stage.
The division into physics, chemistry, etc. is not always desirable. The wish was
expressed that certain topics should be taught without taking these divisions into
account. For instance, the concept of energy, its coiiservation and modes of transfer
could very usefully be studied both in physics, Chemistry and biology. This has,
of course, certain implications for the work of teachers.
Agreement was reached on the need, in the modern world, for a minimum of
scientific training for everyone. The division into science and letters should not,
therefore, take place too early and should never be absolute. Lawyers, politicians
and diplomats need a certain scientificknowledge or they may commit grave errors
of judgement.
The importance of the practical aspect, laboratory work, should never be over-
looked. Secondary schools should be given m o d e m equipment and not took for
odd jobs.
Delegates were informed that important surveys and experiments on the reform
of secondary education were under way in various countries. Abundant material
is available that might serve for adaptation to African countries.

28
 Problems of organization and administration

University entrance conditions

It is impossible to lay down the details of requirements because of the diversity

of educational systems. O f course, this is regrettable in so far as the comparison
of degrees is concerned: passage from secondary school to university takes place
in what might be called a frontier area covering several years. In other words, two
or three years of study, comparable from the point of view of curricula, are attached
either to secondary school or to the university depending on the system.
The majority of delegates recognized that a minimum of scientific knowledge
should be required for admission to a university but, at the same time, they insisted
that al1 rigidity should be avoided. In view of needs, admission to university should
be available to a very wide range of students. It is not entrance that counts, but
the ability to continue study and the end product. However, there was agreement
on the need for some control which might take several forms: regular students might
be admitted provided they held the secondary school leaving certificate; a faculty
entrance examination for persons not holding this diploma but still young (abilities
and knowledge should be checked); for older persons, only ability should be checked.
Attention was drawn to new examination methods in the form of tests, but opinions
varied widely on the importance that should be attached to such methods. The
pertinent comment was made that such tests should be drawn up in relation to the
population undergoing examination, and after a special psychological study. Tests
prepared in Europe are not necessarily applicable in Africa and, in this context,
indeed, Africa itself cannot be taken as a single entity.
It frequently occurs in African countries that the ability to take instruction in
a language other than the national language is required.The greatest possible effort
should be made, however, to avoid eliminating pupils w h o are scientifically gifted
solely for linguistic reasons. Great discretion should be exercised since adaptation
to a new environment will come through habit. Provision might possibly be made
for practical courses in the language of instruction used at the university.

Training of secondary school teachers

The education of the secondary school science teacher within the general teaching
programme of the university, and in science faculties in particular, demands a
reconsideration of the present curricula which are devised along traditional lines,
not so much outmoded as ill-adapted to the needs of the modern scientific age.
Students in our universities desiring to become science teachers need to have their
training so orientated that a full appreciation of the impact of science and technology
on social change (through ways of thought,ways of living, etc.) is consciously included
in the vocational courses. The ability to communicate ideas and stimulate the right
attitude of mind in secondary school science classes demands a similar approach
within the training course.The participants recommended that four years of academic
studies be set as a minimum requirement for the training of science teachers in
secondary schools. In considering the various African institutions where science
training is being given or may effectively be given, the various types of teacher
training colleges, pedagogical institutes and university faculties of education which
may all contribute towards the training of science teachers, should be taken into
account. In any case,a complete reappraisal of the present science teaching curriculum,
methods of training and the introduction of schemes for continued training of
science teachers was recommended. These latter would include refresher courses
on various branches of science and even the secondment of teachers, already in
service, in order that they might be freed from the classroom for short periods so

29
Report of the seminar

that further study (in relation to their particular interests) might be undertaken
at the local university.
Competition from industry and the lack of attraction of the teaching profession
for students are a cause of grave concern to all countries.T w o remedies were suggested
unanimously: (a) upgrading the teaching profession, not only by achieving a greater
equality of salaries with industry, but also by according teachers the social and
moral prestige they enjoyed formerly; (b) teachers at the secondary and higher levels
should try to observe their students and pick out those who are gifted for teaching,
guiding them in that direction. Particularly at the higher level, they should avoid
making unfavourable comparisons between teaching and research.

Science ciirricula in secondary schools

It is unfortunate that there is a general lack of a ‘functional-operationalrelationship’

between the university and the secondary school; this tends to inhibit any attempt
at modifying methods of science teaching in the secondary school, in relation to
(a) general education and (b) university studies. In order, therefore, to make such
recommendations as are offered here in any way effective, a plea was made for much
more co-operationbetween school and university teachers. Based on this co-operation,
which may be brought about by personal contacts, the setting up of official investi-
gatory bodies, teachers’ associations and the like, the seminar would recommend
action as follows: (a) a joint survey study by both the university and the secondary
school concerning the aims and objectives of science education; (b) special studies
concerned with curriculum development in secondary schools; (c) experiment and
action research designed to improve science teaching methods in secondary schools;
(d) a critical reappraisal of university science curricula; (e) the improvement of
science teaching methods within the university; (f) the development of teaching
aids and their introduction into university science faculties; (g) critical reviews of
methods of examination and evaluation of students taking science subjects in both
the secondary schools and the university; (h) the introduction of joint studies
(between schools and universities) of predictive devices and examinations; (i) the
rapid expansion of re-training and refresher courses for science teachers at all
levels; (j) the introduction of long-term evaluatory studies on science and general
education.
While it is appreciated that the recommendations outlined above are complex
and of a long-term nature, the urgency of the problem must be stressed and such
projects as could be carried into effect n o w should be pursued.

COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE AFRICAN COUNTRIES

Exchange of students between universities

These exchanges would be valuable, but pose problems of language, and of the
equivalence of diplomas, particularly during the initial years of university courses.
The participants considered that the language problem was not a major obstacle
and could be overcome in particular by the use of crash courses.
It would be desirable for African universities to offer a few fellowships each year
to students from other regions, African or otherwise.

30
 Problems of organization and administration

Exchange of professors and specialists

These exchanges need not necessarily be reciprocal-though this is desirable-in

view of the shortage of personnel. They could be limited to very short periods,
during which the specialist or professor would give a series of lectures.

Exchange of scientific information

Unesco could provide assistance in the dissemination of documents and bibliographies.

Each university could prepare and distribute abstracts of its own publications,
together with a list of research workers, their research fields and, where necessary,
an inventory of their laboratory equipment.
It would be desirable to set up a scientific society for the whole of Africa,
composed of several sections covering the various disciplines.
Some delegates considered that this proposal might be submitted to the university
rectors who would shortly be meeting in Khartoum.

Equivalence of diplomas

Unesco should help to set up a study group to consider this problem.

It would be regrettable for universities to increase in number without any effective
control of their educational standards or any guarantee of the equivalence of
diplomas.

Full use of university teaching staff'and laboratory equipnzenl

The possible uses of university teaching staff in research and teaching have already
been examined above.
The following activities may be considered: (a) supervision of students' work,
(b) extramural activities, (c) the improvement of education in general, and (d) expert
advice to governments and large organizations.
It is obvious that in order to carry out all these tasks, teaching staff will have to
be considerably increased.

31
 LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

Algeria tany Dept., University of Ghana, Legon

Rachid Oussedik, Proviseur du Ly& de (Accra).
Ben-Aknoun (Algiers). Kenneth Whittaker, Head, Dept. of Science,
K w a m e Nkrumah University (Kumasi).
Basutoland
Ivory Coast
Denis Morgan, Professor of Botany, Head,
Dept. of Botany, University College of Mrs. Gladys Anoma, Chargte des Travaux
Pius XII (Rome). Pratiques de Biologie Vegetale en Licence
et Propedeutique, Ecole des Sciences
Burundi (Abidjan).
Albert Delvaux, Professeur de Chimie, Fa- Ren6 Moline, Chargt des Cours de Matht-
cult6 des Sciences d’Usumbura. matiques (Abidjan).
Pie N’Dayizigamiye, Directeur d’Enseigne- G u y le Morvan, Charge des Cours et
ment Secondaire et Suptrieur, Ministere Travaux Pratiques en Propedeutique et
de I’Education Nationale, (Usumbura). Certificats de Licence (Abidjan).
Albert Nyakazina, Attache de Cabinet Kenya
du Ministere de I’Education Nationale
(Usumbura). Arthur Hunter, Professor of Physics, Dean
of the Faculty of Science, Royal College
Congo (Brazzaville) (Nairobi)
Arsene Poaty, Proviseur du Lyc6e Savorgna Libya
de Brazzaville.
Giuma Masoud Sheriha,Assistant Professor
Congo (Léopoldville) of Chemistry, Faculty of Science (Tripoli).
Antoine D e Bont, Professeur de Zoologie,
Morocco
Universite Lovanium (Leopoldville).
Albert Carlier, Professeur de Botanique, Abdelmalek Faraj, Docteur en Medecine,
Université Lovanium (Ltopoldville). Vice-Recteur de 1’Universite M o h a m m e d
Jean Charette, Professeur de Physique, V (Rabat).
Universite Lovanium (Leopoldville). Driss Amor, Directeur de 1’Ecole M o h a m -
madia d’Ing6nieurs (Rabat).
Ethiopia Henri Arzelies, Professeur de Physique,
Alemayehu Haile, Head, Dept. of Mathe- Faculte des Sciences, Universitt M o h a m -
matics,University College of Addis Ababa. med V (Rabat).
M o h a m m e d Diouri, Chef de la Division
Ghana de la Geologie Secretariat d’Etat B
Ebenezer Laing, Lecturer in Botany, Bo- l’Industrieet aux Mines (Rabat).

32
 List of participants

Abdelmalek Guessous, Maître de Confe- Sierra Leone

rente en Physique, Faculte des Sciences, Sahr Thomas Matturi, Lecturer in Botany,
Universite M o h a m m e d V (Rabat). Fourah Bay College (Freetown).
Hajjoub Msougar, Assistant de Faculte
(Geologie), Faculté des Sciences, Uni- Sudan
versite M o h a m m e d V (Rabat). Mustafa Hassan, Head, Dept. of Chemistry,
Albert Sasson, Maître de Conference en Dean of Faculty of Science, University
Micro-biologie, Faculte des Sciences, of Khartoum.
Universite M o h a m m e d V (Rabat).
Yahia Taheri, Professeur de Mathematiques Tunisia
au Ly& de Kenitra. M o h a m m e d Adnan Zmerli, Directeur du
Laboratoire de Physique, Faculte des
Nigeria Sciences de Tunis.
Bede Nwoye Okigbo, Lecturer in Agricul- Uganda
ture, University of Nigeria (Nsukka). Malcolm Crawford, Professor of Chemistry,
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland Dean of Faculty of Science, Makerere
University College (Kampala).
Edward L. Yates, Professor of Physics,
University College of Rhodesia and United Arab Republic
Nyasaland (Salisbury). Yusef Salah El-Din Kotb, Dean of Faculty
of Education, Ains Shams University
Senegal (Cairo).
Henri Masson, Professeur de Physique, Hussein Said, Professor of Plant Physiology,
Doyen de la Faculte des Sciences, Uni- Head of the Botany Dept., Dean of the
versite de Dakar. Faculty of Science, Cairo University.

G O V E R N M E N T A L OBSERVERS

United Kingdom
Christopher C. Hentschel, Principal, Chelsea College of Science and Technology
(London).

REPRESENTATIVES O F T U E UNITED NATIONS

A N D SPECIALIZED AGENCIES

United Nations Organization Food and Agriculture Organization

Alejandro Flores, Representant resident du Pierre Tissot, Conseiller regional FAO
Bureau de l’Assistance Technique et (enseignement agricole), 52 rue Caton
Directeur des Programmes du Fonds Tunis (Tunisia).
Special au Maroc.
World Meteorological Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency Paul de Martin de Vivies, 41 ave. Giuseppe
Gennady Konstantinov, Division Of Ex- Motta,Geneve (Switzerland).
change and Training, Koertnerring 11,
Vienna I (Austria).

OBSERVERS F R O M N O N - G O V E R N M E N T A L ORGANIZATIONS

International Association of University Pro- International Association of Universities

fessors and Lecturers Henri Masson, Professeur de physique,
Jean Deschamps, Professeur de Chimie, Doyen de la Faculte des Sciences, Uni-
Doyen de la Faculte des Sciences, Uni- versite de Dakar (Senegal).
versite M o h a m m e d V, Rabat (Morocco).

33
Report of the seminar

International Association for the Advance- World Federation of Scientific Workers

ment of Educational Research Theodor Nemec, Assistant to the Secretary
Yusef Salah El-Din Kotb, Dean, Faculty General,Prague 8, Krizikova 78 (Czecho-
of Education, Ain Shams University, slovakia).
Cairo (U.A.R.).
Catholic International Education Ofice
World Confederation of Organizations of the Pierre-Robert Builloux, CollBge Secondaire
Teaching Profession Rural ‘Cidera’, Temara (Morocco).
Christian R. A. Cole, Acting Director,
Extramural Studies, Fourah Bay College, International Union for the Conservation
University College of Sierra Leone, of Nature and Natural Resources
Freetown (Sierra Leone). Jean Panousse, Professeur de Zoologie,
Faculte des Sciences, Universite M o h a m -
InternationalFederation of University W o m e n m e d V, Rabat (Morocco).
Mrs.EugQnie Gasc, Chef des Travaux en
Physique, Faculte des Sciences, Universitk
M o h a m m e d V, Rabat (Morocco).

UNESCO CONSULTANTS

M a x Brenner, Professeur de Chimie, Uni- Robert Maybury, Professor of Chemistry,

versite de Bâle (Switzerland). Redlands University, Calif. (U.S.A.).
George P. Gorshkov, Professor of Geology, Jacques MiBge, Professeur de Botanique,
Geological Dept., Moscow State Univer- Faculte des Sciences, Universite de Dakar
sity (U.S.S.R.). (Senegal).
Thomas L. Green, Professor of Biology, Krzysztof Tatarkiewicz, Professeur de M a -
Director, School of Education, Univer- thkmatiques, Ecole Polytechnique de
sity of Singapore, (Great Britain). Varsovie (Poland).

SECRETARIAT O F UNESCO

Professor V. Kovda, Director of the Depart- A. Wroblewski, Division of Basic Science

ment of Natural Sciences. Teaching at University Level.
Professor A. V. Baez, Chief of the Division Mrs.A. HunwaId, Division of Basic Science
of Basic Science Teaching at University Teaching at University Level.
Level. Mrs. B. Benardouth, Division of Basic
W. Welling, Chief of Higher Education Science Teaching at University Level.
Unit, Department of Education.
M. Elmandjra, Chief, African Section,
Bureau of Relations with Member States.

34
 P A R T T W O

BASIC DOCUMENTS
 I. SOME IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF SCIENCE TEACHING
AT AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES

T. L. Green
Director, School of Education, University of Singapore

Reference was made at the beginning of the publication to two kinds of results,
the ‘visible’and the ‘invisible’. Further bases of division also exist, such as that
between the objective and the subjective, and the writers of this document have
therefore sought to provide certain other data, and to interpret them in the present
section. While these data and their significance may be familiar to the delegates
to the seminar, in view of the fact that university science teaching is in full develop-
ment in Africa, it is important that the situation be known to others elsewhere,
from w h o m help must come.
The data presented below derive from twenty answers to questionnaires. Of those
returned not all were complete. In preparing the following statements use has been
made of all material available in relation to each point.

BASIC DATA

Scientific associations, societies, etc.

Reference was made to the existence of twenty-five scientific associations of various

kinds in eight Unesco Member States from w h o m replies were received. One Member
State recorded the absence of any such association. As may be expected such
associations were best developed in States with the longest histories. M a n y of the
associations are linked to parent bodies, indeed, several of these are branches of
the British Royal Institutes.
Realizing the value of such associations, particularly in facilitating various kinds
of exchange, all Member States appear to be seeking to develop them.

Scientific journals

The need for scientific journals requires no emphasis in view of the importance
of the exchange of information. Again, journals are found most often in the
institutions of States with the longest history of development and they are most

1. This document has been prepared in the light of discussion during the seminar, and
of information provided by participants on the situation of university science teaching
in their respective countries.

37
Basic documents

often lacking in the youngest institutions. Lack of such journals was recorded in
four Member States. The existence of local branches of the larger scientific associa-
tions helped to meet the situations as it provides some avenue of publication, which
is important both to the exchange of information and to the morale of young workers.

Scientific supplies

Science cannot be taught without the necessary apparatus and supplies and, while
something can be done to build the former and collect the latter, no laboratory
can be independent of commercially produced materials. It will be seen from the
list on page 40 that shortages of apparatus and supplies were rated, respectively,
seventh and eighth, and lack of special services (which would include maintenance
and repair of advanced apparatus) was rated third in the given list of nine difficulties.
Three Member States appear to be entirely without a scientific supply agency
representative and are thus forced to depend upon ordering direct from overseas
main suppliers or main agencies. Others have local representatives and in some
there is even local production (e.g. of the commonly used gases). While the lack
of local agents and the potential inconveniences resulting therefrom can be mitigated
by careful ordering procedures these may be rendered less effective by delivery
delays. This point was mentioned only once by respondents, and then in connexion
with that Member State which appeared to be best supplied with local agents.

Exchange of supplies, materials, specimens

At previous Unesco meetings of a similar character,l the suggestion arose that

certain exchanges,especially of specimens,natural products, etc.,of severely localized
origin might be arranged. The answers provided to questions about this point
indicate: (a) existence of a rich variety of materials; (b) existence of some severely
localized and specialized materials; (c) a great willingness to engage in exchange;
(d) the need to take a realistic view in order to ensure that the mechanism of
exchange, operated between the universities, would be as efficient as and less costly
than the use of commercial channels; (e) the desirability of extensive exchange of
information as a preliminary to the exchange of materials; (f) the desirability of
over-allplanning of any such activity so that, through some degree of specialization,
overlapping would be avoided and costs reduced; (g) while the need for supply
agencies, especially in regard to the supply of natural products, biological specimens
and the like, was recognized, there were differences of opinion as to whether or not
universities themselves, or government departments, could effectively or economi-
cally sponsor them. The general position appeared to be that those who worked
in the same fields of study might be able to effect certain exchanges, especially
between institutions which were fairly close geographically, but operating in different
climatic, ecological or biological conditions. It was also felt that the problem was
more complex than it appeared to be on the surface. Nevertheless there was a general
expression of readiness to engage in exchanges, where opinion was expressed, rather
than any sign of inability or unwillingness to do so.

1. First Regional Science Seminar on Physics and Chemistry Training in Universities and
Science Teaching at Upper Secondary School level. N e w Delhi, India. December 1960.
Report, edited by T.L. Green, published by Unesco South Asia Science Co-operation
Office, N e w Delhi.
Regional Meeting on the Teaching of Basic Science in Universities of South and South-
East Asia, Manilla, Philippines, 1961. Report, edited by T. L. Green. To be published
by the Unesco National Commission for the Philippines.

38
 S o m e important asuects of science teachina

Reports and studies

This section related not to the normal academic studies, to be expected in universities,
but to the social and economic significance of science and its role in development.
Material of this kind has an obvious significance for the strategy of developmental
planning. The information obtained relating to the various points indicates that:

University science teaching, whether in general terms of planning or specific terms

of performance, appears to have received very little critical thought. It has been the
subject of study and report only in the older-established institutions. It may be
taken that this emphasizes the value of the seminar under discussion which, by
bringing together members of the newest and the oldest African universities, allowed
the former to benefit from the experience of the latter.

School science, on the other hand, appears to have been given more attention, as
a number of delegates referred to attempts which had been made, or which were
in progress, to develop a new science syllabus. Reference has been made earlier
in the report to discussions of the existence of problems in the relationship between
school and university science teaching. The solution of these problems, though
dependent upon many factors, is partly dependent upon greater co-operationbetween
school and university in determining the purpose, nature and procedures of science
education at high school and in the early university years. While this proposition
was accepted by the seminar it is clear that much yet remains to be done to bring
about such co-operation.
The economic significance of science has been clearly appreciated and the whole
seminar, in every way, was a tribute to this appreciation. Despite this there are,
it seems, few specific studies and only a single manpower survey was reported. It
would seem that here an urgent need is disclosed; if science is to make the most
effective contribution to development, such surveys which are basic to planning
are essential.

National science councils

These, while of varying form, appear to be fairly well established, especially in those
Member States with the longer histories. Six major organizations of this type were
recorded,with others in process of formation.

Co-ordinating committees

University and government. As National Science Councils are, in effect, co-ordinating

committees between university and government, the returns naturally included the
six major organizations referred to above. In addition reference was made to other
devices for co-ordination, the most c o m m o n being the presence of government
representatives on College Councils.
University and industry. The general state of non-industrialization in Africa has
obviously conditioned the situation here. Thus there are few co-ordinating links
between the university world and the industrial world. However contacts are being
developed between the College Appointments Boards and industry.
University and secondary schools. These, which are so mutually interdependent,
should work in close collaboration. However, formal devices for collaboration

39
Basic documents

are little developed, although such devices as examination boards bring the two
types of institution into contact.

ANALYSIS OF DIFFICULTIES

Any discussion of the problems of teaching science in the universities inevitably

touches upon the difficultiesencountered. A list of the nine difficulties which appeared
to be most marked among those mentioned was circulated with an invitation to
indicate relative severity on a rating scale-and to add others which had not been
included. By using weighted scores from the completed questionnaires the following
results were obtained showing the difficulties in order of rank.
1. Insufficient staff to teach science.
2. Lack of supporting technicians.
3. Lack of special services.
4. Too heavy a teaching load.
5. Limited budget.
6. Shortage of textbooks.
7. Shortage of apparatus.
8. Shortage of supplies.
9. Inadequate library.
In addition to the above a number of other difficulties were mentioned, for the
most part extensions or derivatives of the items listed and none was mentioned
by more than a single delegate. They are given below, as they are of some interest
in helping to interpret the earlier list: inadequate commercial agencies; delays in
the delivery of orders ; inadequate facilities for expedition work; inadequate clerical
assistance; insufficient number of research students ; lack of senior staff; difficulty
of supervising research; insufficient number of science students in early stages;
very rapid change-over of staff; inadequate science teaching amenities in schools;
lack of school science teachers.
It will be seen that many of these items are closely interconnected so that, in
seeking improvement, an attack on a group of problems may be more effective
than a piecemeal attack. The chief problem lies not in the material, but in
the human field; it is the shortage of trained staff which will be most difficult to
overcome.

EVALUATION OF SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHING

Reference has been made earlier to the fact that while science teaching in the schools
is the foundation for university science teaching there has been too little recognition
of the interdependence of the two stages of science education. Improvement in
either is definitely contingent on improvements in the other. Having attempted to
diagnose some of the difficulties experienced at the university level it seemed only
appropriate for the delegates, who were university teachers. to give their evaluation
of school science. Using a simple rating-scale technique, the following results were
obtained, in order of rank:
1. Insufficient general reading by students entering the university.
2. Insufficient practical experience.
3. Tendency to remember rather than understand.
4. Knowledge confined to the syllabus content.
5. Limited practical skills.

40
 Some important aspects of science teaching

6. Limited critical ability.

7. Knowledge mainly theoretical.
8. Insufficient basic mathematics.
9. Inability to improvise.
10. Inadequate command of terminology.
Again there is a list of further comments which should prove of interest to all w h o
are in a position to take practical steps in regard to the improvement of school
science teaching. The points, each mentioned only once, are : rigidity of thought
processes; lack of imagination and insight; lack of interest in the subject, only
concerned about examination; inability to apply knowledge in new situations;
no understanding of accepted ideas of causality;inadequate preparation for university
work; low level of mechanical and constructional skills; insuEìcient command of
French or English.
Criticisms of this kind are by no means corhned to the African situation. They
have, for example, been recorded in two earlier Unesco Conference Reports.1
They are of particular importance because they suggest that the improvement of
science teaching at the school level requires attention not only to the content of the
curriculum, but also to the methods by which it is taught.

QUALITIES OF THE GOOD UNIVERSITY TEACHER

Despite the fact that there is so much talk about the ‘good’university teacher, the
qualities by which he is characterized have not been defined, still less agreed upon.
This is not through any lack of attempts to reach a definition; the simple reason
for their failure is that in relation to complex phenomena, criteria which are at
once uniform and distinct are rarely found, especially where a subjective element
is present. Indeed the subjective aspects of the situation were such as to lead several
delegates to refrain from answering-not through any unwillingnessto be co-operative,
but because they felt that the situation did not permit a sufficiently objective
answer.
There have been attempts made to defme the qualities of the good university
teacher, the criteria of good teaching and so on. These attempts have ranged from
elaborate procedures 2 through the relatively simple3 to the very simple-as here.
In all cases critics have. in the past, felt that the whole is greater than the sum of
the parts-and thus the essence of the ‘goodness’of the teacher is lost in the face
of attempts to characterize it in detail. However, as others have recorded,4 though
the direct outcomes of such attempts at analysis are usually very slender, whether
the techniques adopted were complex or simple, refined or crude, the most valuable
outcome has been the experience of participation, of having to attempt to diagnose
and order qualities of an intangible kind.
It will be noted that the few remarks which follow were made by university
teachers, and not students. It may be that sharp divisions of opinion exist between
the two groups!

First Regional Science Seminar . . .op. cit., and Regional Meeting on the Teaching . . .
op. cit.
J. W. Riley et al. The Student Looks at his Teacher. N e w Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers
University Press, 1949.
B. B. Cronkhite, A Handbook for Colfege Teachers.Cambridge,Mass.,Harvard University
Press, 1951.
First Regional Science Seminar . . . op. cit., and Regional Meeting on the Teaching ...
op. cit.

41
Basic documents ~______
The respondents named thirty criteria. Some were mentioned but once, others
more often, those most frequently mentioned being ‘knowledge of subject matter’
(nine times)and ‘clarity of thought and exposition’(eight times). As the respondents
had ranked their criteria in order of importance this ranking and the frequency
of occurrence could be used as the basis of a scoring system. The various criteria
were divided into categories with the results shown below:

TABLE
1. Qualities of the good university teacher’
-
Category Examples Weighted Rank
score

Intellectual qualities Knowledge of subject

Originality of thought
Critical thought 125 1
Interest in subject
Control of methods

Attitudes to students Jnterest in people

and teaching Sympathy for students 38 2
Desire to teach others

Personality qualities Adaptability

Humility
Sympathy 33 3
Honesty
Patience

Miscellaneous Knowledge of teaching methods 5 4

1. The respondents were scientists and their reference was to the science field.

Those who discuss the problems of university teaching are, on occasion, over
confident in their analyses. To claim, for example, that the skills of teaching are
entirely inborn may be to ignore the effects of experience. Similarly, those who
think that training can solve all difficulties are ignoring the need for some inborn
substratum of potential aptitude. The delegates, as befitting a group of scientists,
were cautious in their responses to questions on these points. In general they believed
that those qualities which are characteristic of good teachers are primarily inborn,
may be improved by experience and can be improved by training.
A question was inserted concerned with lack of qualities, as opposed to possession
of them. It is not intended to present the results, beyond referring to the three
following points which were not covered in the more positive approach of another
question dealt with above: (a) inability to make valid judgements of the relative
ability of students; (b) inability to understand the basis of the difficulties experienced
by students, and (c) inability to be free of prejudica1 pressure, religious or political.
While this is a function of the situation rather than of the individual,it is nevertheless
regrettable.Both points (a) and (b) are obviously significant for they become opera-
tive very frequently, first, in selecting students to follow sciences courses, and second,
in helping them to do so. The interesting point arises here as to whether these
particular abilities are the fruits of endowment, experience or education?

42
 Some important aspects of science teaching

DESIRABLE AIMS OF THE GOOD UNIVERSITY TEACHER

Three delegates refrained from answering this question on the grounds that the
setting was ‘too subjective’, although the intention of attempting to introduce some
degree of objectivity was obvious. The answers obtained indicated a greater degree
of agreement about aims, sixteen of which were mentioned with a total frequency
of thirty-two mentions. Since each aim was given an order of priority this information
was used for rating and the aims were grouped as appeared most appropriate. The
results are shown below:
1. Knowledge, interest in and understanding of science: 77 points
2. Professional aims (produce scientists, science teachers, etc.): 21 points.
3. Formation of character, personality, attitudes: 17 points.
4. Social service by science to society:7 points.
The emphasis on knowledge,interest, skill and understanding in the fields of science
is perhaps to be expected. The majority of the respondents were academic scientists
and they naturally see their role and task in terms of science. Allied to this is the
second most widely accepted aim, that of producing professional scientists (pro-
fessors, teachers, technicians, etc.). The less easily definable qualities which might
be outcomes of education were rated lower,under such heads as character formation,
personality and attitudes.Little reference was made to the aims of the good university
teacher in social terms.

DESIRABLE ACTION AND OUTSIDE HELP

Three specific questions were asked in order to provide guidance to Member States
and their universities in regard to action they might take, singly, collectively or
Co-oreratively.and also to indicate to Unesco specific kinds of help that are needed.
1. References and bibliographical data bearing on:
Tests of scientific aptitude: 86 per cent wished to receive such data.
Studies of the nature of scientific ability: 90 per cent.
Reviews of methods of science teaching:94 per cent.
Studies on science and its place in education: 80 per cent.
Studies of the social significance of science: 78 per cent.
2. Publication of a Unesco-sponsored handbook on methods of teaching at university
level:
O f the respondents 75 per cent indicated that they thought such a text desirable,
though a few stressed that it would be a difficult undertaking, requiring not only
scholarship, but tact. Those opposed to the idea were very emphatic that such
a book would serve no purpose, partly because it could not easily be written;
and secondly, because the sceptical would not use it.
3. Annotated bibliographies relating to:
Psychology of learning: 77 per cent wished to receive bibliographies.
Reviews of new learning theories: 90 per cent.
Books on programmed instruction: 80 per cent.
Books about visual methods of instruction: 81 per cent.
It may be seen from the above that in a group where there is some degree ofsuspicion
towards the professional educator there is, nevertheless, willingness to beCOme
acquainted with modern educational ideas,methods and findings.

43
Basic documents

DISCUSSION

While the data presented above, being based entirely on a few simple questionnaires,
are of necessity insufficiently comprehensive and of a simple character, they help
to fill in the details of the general picture. The contents of the discussions and the
answers to questionnaires are found to be complementary and nowhere in serious
conflict with each other. It may also be said that the findings, such as they are,
reflect closely earlier findings of similar meetings held in Delhi and Mani1a.l
T w o points may perhaps be referred to more fully, as both appear basic to the
whole situation.
First, as noted in the previous section, the delegates have not given a high place
in their statements of aims to the social outcomes of science teaching. It was made
evident earlier in the report that some concern about the conditions of entry to the
university was felt about the academic and often abstract character of syllabuses
and the ‘informational’type of examination paper. Yet, while these areathe conditions
of the academic world, those concerned with the acceleration of socio-economic
development have given a high priority to science as an agent of social advance.
Educationists have accepted this diagnosis of relationships and2 are concerned
about the remodelling of curriculum and methods. Here, it seems, is a point to
which attention should be given in order that science teaching may make the maxi-
m u m contribution to development.
Secondly, there does appear to be some degree of mistrust, if not of real suspicion,
on the part of scientists towards the educational theorist. While it is certain that
education has its fashions?as much as any other field, so also it is certain that some
real, not merely apparent,progress has been made. From studies which have ranged
from neurology to psychology, and from the simplest learning situation up to the
design of computer circuits, ideas have accumulated which are of profound signifi-
cance to all who are concerned with teaching and learning at every level. It js from
these ideas that the new theories which underlie all that is comprised by the phrase
‘programmed instruction’ are now bcing distilled and they are remodelling the
w h o k concept of teaching methodology. While there is some willingness to accept
these ideas when presented as new theory, there is an undoubted resistance to their
acceptance as the basis of new practices in teaching.
In conclusion, after examining the data provided in the information sheets and
considering them in relation to the seminar, as analysed in the body of this report,
four clear-cut needs were distinguished: (a) closer agreement between university
and school worlds as to their respective social obligations; (b) closer co-operation
between the university and the school worlds in regard to their academic functions;
(c) wider appreciation of the value of the study of the educational process and its
procedures and of the need to apply the results of such study to practical situations;
(d) more emphasis upon the explicit evaluation of the social outcomes of science
education.
Unless these needs can be not merely considered, but satisfied, success in other
spheres, such as improving supporting services or increasing the supply of trained
scientists, will fail to make a maximum contribution to social progress and human
betterment.

-
1. First Regional Science Seminar . . .op. cit., and Regional Meeting on the Teaching . .
op. cit.
2. T. L. Green, Education and Social Reconstruction. Inaugural lecture from the Chair Of
Education, University of Malaya, 1960.

44
 Some important aspects of science teaching

CONCLUSIONS

The information supplied by the participants and the discussions held at the seminar
led to a number of observations and suggestions which might be summarized as
follows:
Science has become an all-pervasive part of modern life.
Modern education must therefore give a very significant place to science.
Universities as centres of learning, teaching and research are of special importance
in the field of science.
The outcomes of science education must go beyond information and skill into the
fields of attitudes, individual and social.
For science education to fulfil its new task new conceptions of both its content
and method are needed.
The content in particular must be more closely related to the needs of Africa.
The methods of education need to be reviewed and improved, especially in regard
to the use of such new media as programmed instruction and teaching machines.
In spite of their limitations all such methods also have potential value, for example,
in regard to accelerating education.
The teaching of mathematics is very important as a basis for most, if not all other
sciences. Physics which has undergone such great changes needs to be seen in
new terms, and new relationships.
Chemistry may be of special importance to Africa, not merely in connexion with
the exploitation of natural resources, but in its social significance in relation
to health, agriculture and industrialization.
Biological science, for the same reasons, is also of prime importance to Africa.
Geology, little taught, yet, may in the future prove to be of extreme importance.
Difficultieshave to be faced-the shortage of skilled and highly trained staff, the
delays in obtaining materials and the lack of services essential to research and
academic progress must be met and overcome.
Co-operation between African universities, at all levels, in the exchange of informa-
tion, materials and skills will do much to overcome these difficulties.
Co-operation is needed between government and universities, between the economy
(whether industrial or agricultural) and the universities, and between the univer-
sities and the schools.
Co-operation is needed also between the institutions of all kinds in Africa and the
outer and international world and its agencies.
Attention must especially be directed to ensuring:
1. That universities have the autonomy and freedom essential for academic growth
and fulfilment.
2. That university staff are required not only to teach, but enjoy conditions in
which research is possible.
3. That research,though it may have an applied aspect,is to a large extent concerned
with the pure and fundamental problems which form the bases of the various
disciplines.
4. That staff, adequate in ability, training and experience are forthcoming.
5. That, while there must, perhaps for some time, be dependence upon others,
the ultimate aim should be for the universities of Africa to be able to produce,
train and employ their own African staff.
6. That the universities and the schools should collaborate in the task of improving
science teaching.
7. That access to the university should be facilitated by sensible standardization
of requirements and open to all with ability to profit from it.

45
Bosic documents

8. That facilities, resources,amenities within universities be improved in all possible

ways.
9. That teaching techniques, in particular at university level, be a matter for
review.
10. That the modes of evaluating and examining be improved in all possible ways.

46
 II. THE UNIVERSITY TEACHING OF MATHEMATICS
AS A BASIS FOR THE EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCES

Krzysztof Tatarkiewicz
Professor, University of Lublin, Poland

INTRODUCTION

Whereas twenty or thirty years ago it was believed that industry would need a
limited number of specialists and a large unspecialized labour force, the industrial
situation today makes it clear that, in the very near future, if not now, the normal
level of training will need to be quite high, and that the percentage of workers with
maximum qualifications is steadily growing. This state of affairs makes it imperative
to introduce new methods in university teaching whereby specialist personnel can
be trained in less time and more easily.
Again, the rate of change in the methods used in industry and in scientific research
is creating the need for a type of training quite different from the traditional. As
lately as fifty years ago, it was enough to learn formulae and to know how to use
tables. Today, the regular work of a chemist, a geologist or a biologist may lead
him to use methods which had not yet been invented when he was a student. This
makes it necessary not simply to teach the student how to use formulae or accepted
methods, but to provide a sound and adequate grounding for applying new methods.
It is here that the teaching of mathematics becomes a factor, since the importance
of mathematics has been steadily growing in recent methods, and it is in this subject
that shortcomings in teaching are hardest to make good.
In these circumstances, we need to reconsider the teaching of mathematics to
‘non-mathematics’students in a wider context. Our situation is comparable to that
of the manager of a factory making television sets who wants his labour to be
skilled. H e cannot just have his workers taught how to make the sets in current
production in his factory: he must also have them given a thorough knowledge of
electrical technology and radio engineering. Similarly, we cannot expect to get
good results from the mathematics courses for ‘non-mathematics’students unless
they come to us with an adequate grounding acquired at secondary school and
unless w e contrive to find a satisfactory solution to the problem of teaching personnel
and their scientific work.

SECONDARY SCHOOL M.?THEMATICS

It may be.a paradox, but it is a fact that the nature ofiprimary and secondary school
mathematics syllabuses and how they are taught are of little importance in teaching

47
Basic documents

prospective mathematicians (as there is sufficient time at the university to make

good any gaps in their knowledge) but of great importance in teaching mathematics
to ‘non-mathematicians’.
The primary aim of mathematics teaching at primary and secondary level is to
drill the pupil in a limited range of problems. The parts of mathematics he learns
before the baccalaureat or secondary school leaving certificate can be set out in a
few pages in the case of arithmetic and algebra and in twenty or thirty pages in that
of geometry. The pupil learns by rote in his first year that 2 + 2 = 4 and, in his
eighth or ninth year that the roots of the equation x2 + 2ax + b = O are
x = -a f d(a2 -b). It is thus of great importance that his mathematics ‘drill’
should include as much as possible of what will be necessary for the applied mathe
matics he uses, or will form a grounding for university studies. This is possible only
if the pupil learns no more than is genuinely essential.
T o the best of m y knowledge, however, syllabuses in every country in the world
are cluttered with materia1 of merely historical interest and included only because
tradition requires it-and it may be a very hoary tradition, dating back even to
classical times. Thus, the theory of proportions was necessary for the deductive
exposition of Euclid’s elements, but today has no bearing on contemporary methods
or applied mathematics. The same applies to the systems of higher-order algebraic
equations (of less antiquity), or even to the geometrical applications of trigonometry,
which are important only to geodesists. These and many other items in the syllabus
need to be eliminated and replaced by those which will be useful to prospective univer-
sity or polytechnic students or in employment. W e need,for instance,to include the
numerical and graphical solution of equations, the fundamental theory of determi-
nants, and the ‘formal’properties of the trigonometrical functions used in analysis.
W e also need-and this is perhaps still more important-to introduce the rudiments
of the theory of probabilities and of mathematical statistics,which today are essential
for any member of a modern society,and, if there is still time to spare (which means
in all countries where the course leading to the secondary certificate lasts twelve
years), the elements of differential and integral calculus.
Such changes in the syllabus are meeting-and will continue to meet-with much
hostility from secondary-school teachers, which is invariably expressed in the
question: ‘If w e omit things like the systems of higher-order algebraic equations
or the geometrical applications of trigonometry from the syllabus, what problems
can be set for the baccalaureat?’ This kind of reaction needs, I think, no comment.
Reforms will perhaps be assisted by the great authority in the mathematical field
of the group of scholars in France who have recently begun to press energetically
for the modernization of mathematics teaching in secondary schools. I think, too,
that in countries where secondary school traditions are less ancient than in Europe,
these reforms should be more easily accepted. I have dealt with them at some length
here because their implementation will have a beneficial effect, particularly on the
possibilities of teaching mathematics to ‘non-mathematics’students and because
they will be carried out only if the universities ask for them.

DIFFICULTY OF PROFFERING ADVICE OF UNIVERSAL VALIDITY

In different countries, the length of primary and secondary education together

may be ten, eleven or twelve years; standards vary widely from one to another;
and syllabuses may be traditional, in the sense of the preceding paragraph, to a
greater or lesser degree. There may therefore be enormous differences in the standards
of knowledge of students entering the university and it is thus almost impossible
to suggest anything which will hold good for all countries.

48
 Mathematics as a basis for the experimental sciences

Yet another difficulty is that, on graduation, students from the same faculty or
branch of a faculty may have widely different requirements in essential mathematics
for their line of work. For instance, a chemist engaged on classical organic synthesis
will need no more than the four arithmetical operations and perhaps the ability
to use tables of logarithms, whereas the m a n in radiation chemistry will even have
to make use of branches of mathematics which mathematics graduates do not
know, e.g., the theory of operators in Hilbert space.
The principle to follow is that no special consideration is required for the needs
either of the 10 per cent of pupils for w h o m the minimum of mathematics is enough
or of the 10 per cent who should get as much mathematics as possible. For the
former, the mathematics taught may come in useful one day, while the latter will
need an adequate grounding to be able to teach themselves the branches of mathe-
matics which will later be of interest to them; ‘extra’ courses can be arranged for
them, which I shall discuss more fully later.
W e have already laid it down as a principle that, in their future professional
activities, students need to know h o w to augment their knowledge unassisted, which
means that they must be given a sound grounding by the university. But the foun-
dation mathematics for a non-mathematician are not exclusively differential and
integral calculus and may indeed be quite another area of the subject. His foundation
mathematics are the necessary knowledge to enable him to learn the required extra
material for himself, and the methods to be selected for applying his results to
concrete problems.
For a chemist, for instance, the foundation mathematics will comprise differential
and integral calculus, the rudiments of probability theory, and an introduction to
numerical methods,with a knowledge of their application to the results of experiments.
A few months back I happened to come across a striking illustration of the diffi-
culties experienced in using known formulae on concrete problems. The question
was about a toy,a ‘hydro-pneumatic’rocket, worked by partly filling a ‘fuelchamber’
with water and compressing the au in the rest of the space by means of a bicycle
pump; on opening a cock, the water is forced out of a nozzle and the rocket takes
off. The problem was to determine the optimum water content, i.e. the quantity
of water needed in the tank for the rocket to reach maximum height. The equations
of motion for this problem are fairly simple, but cannot be integrated by simple
methods. Some students w h o m the toy had interested were completely at sea over
the problem, but the simplest and crudest numerical methods give the answer with
an acceptably small degree of error, using extremely simple numerical calculations
which can be completed in half an hour.
The problem of applying mathematical methods to practical problems is regarded
by mathematicians as outside their purview, while the other members of the teaching
staffobviously lack the full qualifications for dealing with it; and this situation,
I think, constitutes the most difficult problem to be solved in mathematics teaching
for students of the experimental sciences.The ideal would be for the mathematicians
instructing such students to have a thorough knowledge of the particular experi-
mental science concemed-chemistry, biology, etc.-but it is difficult to impose
this requirement on mathematicians, and it is to be expected that the present state
of affairs, with nobody responsible for the uses of mathematics in the experimental
sciences, will continue for a long time to come and that it will be far from easy to
find a satisfactory way out of the difficulty.

49
Basic documents

THE TEACHING OF OTHER SUaTECTS

It is a well-known fact that the teachers of other subjects than mathematics, e.g.
physicists or chemists, do not know how to make use, in their own lessons, of what
their mathematics colleague has taught their students. Scores of examples can be
quoted of physicists or chemists who, instead of using mathematical findings which
not only meet the requirements of scientific rigour but also shorten the calculations,
go in for ‘do-it-yourself’,hammering out mathematical procedures of their own
which are imprecise and extremely clumsy to use.
For examples we need take only the use of a series of infinitesimal increases
instead of derivatives, or the very complex analysis of the flux of vector fields across
surfaces approaching ideal surfaces instead of using the Gaus-Ostrogradski theorem.
All this is not only a waste of time but also misses an opportunity to let students
learn to put methods they know in theory to practical use.
In some countries, an attempt has been made to split the mathematics course
into two parts-a basic course for first- (and sometimes also second-)year students
and a supplementary course (letus call it an ‘extra’course) for fourth-and fifth-year
students. Something on these lines has also been tried in Poland, where I had an
opportunity of examining chemistry students after an ‘extra’course, which included
the elements of the theory of simple differential equations, an introduction to the
theory of the Fourier series and an introduction to differential geometry (theory
of curves). The chemists were extremely unhappy about it and did not understand
why they had been obliged to learn branches of mathematics which were absolutely
no use to them. Simple differential equations could indeed have been useful to them,
but only if they had been familiar with them earlier, when they were studying
physics and physical chemistry, particularly chemical kinetics. This also applies
to the Fourier series. The elements of the differential geometry of curves were
obviously useless to them, though some parts of the theory of surfaces-if they
had learnt them early enough-would have been useful up to a point in the theory
of capillarity.
From the standpoint of the organization of studies, providing this kind of course
for students in their last year is simply what we in Poland call ‘serving the mustard
after the dinner’. I also suspect that mathematics which students know and which
could be useful but which they were not taught to apply when studying their own
subjects, will never be used by them in their professional work.

THE POSTULATE OF RIGOUR

Mathematicians are often asked by experimental scientists to teach ‘non-exact’

mathematics. Yet only ‘exact’ results can be interpreted and applied with ease,
particularly in the case of non-mathematicians. Even if we want really to teach
mathematics (of a kind which could provide a basis for later studies), as opposed
to a lot of heterogeneous formulae, ‘exact’ mathematics are easier to learn than
inexact pseudo-mathematics.This is obvious, since it is easier to learn concepts
which are clear even if the reasoning is complex, than to grasp ‘woolly’ con-
cepts.
O f course, we must not go too far: a course of theoretical arithmetic by way of
introduction to differential calculus for chemists, for example, would be not merely
unnecessary but even harmful.

50
 Mathematics as a basis for the experimental sciences

OUTLINE SYLLABUSES

W e may, however, attempt to work out a few proposals for the mathematics syllabus
for non-mathematicians. They will naturally depend on the standard of mathematics
in the local secondary schools and on the type of syllabus laid down for the main
branch of science studies, and hence also on the degree of specialization in that
branch. T w o sets of proposals are accordingly given below, for a minimum and a
maximum syllabus respectively.
Biology
Minimum: Introduction to mathematical statistics.
Maximum: Elements of linear algebra (matrix theory). Elements of differential and
integral calculus and introduction (but only an introduction) to the theory of
simple differential equations. Elements of the theory of probabilities and of
mathematical statistics. Numerical methods and their applications in the numerical
treatment of experimental data.
Geology
It is perhaps most difficult of all to make practical suggestions for a mathematics
syllabus for geology students, since ‘geology’covers a whole collection of specialist
fields requiring widely differing levels of mathematical training. For a palaeonto-
logist, for instance, knowing that 2 + 2 = 4 will be enough, but a geologist
specializing in crystallography needs a good knowledge of certain branches of
mathematics, including the elements of group theory.
Chemistry
Minimum: Fairly thorough introduction to differential and integral calculus. Rough
outline of the theory of simple differential equations and some useful formulae.
Essentials of group theory. Essentials of probability theory and of the theory
of errors. Numerical methods and their application.
Maximum: Introduction to linear algebra. Fairly thorough course in differential
and integral calculus. Introduction to the theory of simple differential equations.
Outline of the theory of partial differential equations. Introduction to differential
geometry. Essentials of group theory. Theory of probabilities, mathematical
statistics and theory of errors. Fairly full course on numerical methods and their
application to the numerical treatment of experimental data.
As some chemists will need a fuller mathematical background and there is little
probability of their being able to broaden their field of knowledge sufficiently by
their own work, the maximum programme should comprise not only a basic course
but also an ‘extra’ course intended only for students proposing to specialize in
certain branches. The ‘extra’ course should go straight on from the basic course
and should comprise: the theory of partial differential equations, particularly second
order, more about group theory, the theory of Fourier series and a fairly full course
on the theory of linear operators in Hilbert space.
Clearly these proposals will not give the result sought unless the way the syllabus
is taught is up to date. Here-mutatis mutandis-all that was said above1 about
the ‘traditional’elements in the secondary school syllabus again applies. For instance,
it is a frequent practice to include a few lessons on the rudiments of analytical
geometry as an introduction to differential and integral calculus. Tradition requires
that at this point the classification of quadrics be taught in full detail. In m y o w n

1. See p. 47,‘Secondary school mathematics ’.

51
Basic documents

view, the greater the detail, the more the time wasted. There will be no waste of time,
however, if some workings of the classifìcation are studied as examples of the appli-
cation of the theory of specific values of operators.Even the most up-to-datesyllabus
is useless if it is not given on modern lines.

MATHEMATICS SYLLABUS FOR PHYSICS STUDENTS

The teaching of mathematics to physics students is a problem on its own. Physics

needs the whole of ‘classical’ mathematics (except perhaps some sections of
geometry) and much of ‘modern’ mathematics. However, prospective physicists
have to learn not merely mathematics but also physics, and accordingly the mathe-
matics syllabus for them must be meticulously selected and modified according to
the branch in which the student is going to work. A theoretical physicist working
in the field of atomic physics needs a different mathematical background from an
experimental physicist working on acoustics.
A classification showing what specialist branches of theoretical physics require
what branches of mathematics couId even be made out:
1. Astronomy, electrical technology (simple differential equations).
2. Hydro-dynamics, rheology, electromagnetism, optics (partial differential equa-
tions).
3. Atomics (operators in Hilbert space plus partial differential equations and certain
other branches of mathematics).
Fifty years ago mathematics and physics students did much of the course together-
mathematical analysis, algebra, analytical geometry, experimental physics, etc. ...
Today, in almost all countries, the trend is to teach mathematics and physics students
separately. In my o w n view, this is sound in principle but there are certain subjects
(mathematical analysis, experimental physics) which can be taught in combined
classes of mathematics and physics students for many years to come; the arrangement
will be of advantage to both parties, for the physicists will learn mathematical rigour
and the mathematicians will develop their insight into physical problems. Moreover
in those countries where there is a shortage of trained personnel, combining classes
will make it possible to give both groups the best teachers.
Mention may also be made of the well-known fact that teaching centres can
arrange separate courses for physics students only if they have a sufficiently
numerous mathematical faculty to create courses for prospective mathematicians.

THE TEACHING STAFF

It has already been emphasized that the non-mathematicians’mathematics teacher

must run the course on up-to-datelines, and adapt it to the students’ standard of
knowledge and in any respects made necessary by developments in the other sciences
and their teaching methods. H e should also help his colleagues (biologists,chemists,
etc.) to overcome the mathematical difficulties they may encounter in their o w n
departments. It is obvious, in view of this, that the person required for this kind
of post is a true mathematician and not simply a mathematics teacher, the latter
term being used in this context, to signify someone w h o knows the subjects in the
syllabus and is capable of teaching them to others, whereas the ‘mathematician’can
not only do au this but is also sufficiently gifted and sufficiently trained as a scientist
to be able to produce original mathematical work.
The training of science staff is not an easy matter, and the fruits of Polish experience
with mathematicians may probably be useful to others at present suiTering from a
shortage of such staff. Poland secured her independence in 1918, after 150 years

52
 Mathematics as a basis for the experimental sciences

of occupation. Before the First World War, the country had only two small
universities with a few mathematicians in their faculties. Today, although Polish
mathematics, and indeed all Polish science, suffered great losses during the Second
World War, we have over two hundred mathematicians who have published original
work, much of which is regarded by such journals as Mathematical Reviews and
the Zentralblatt für Mathematik as an important contribution to the subject. At
the time of the First World War, there was a discussion between the two eminent
mathematicians, S. Zaremba and Z.Janiszewski, on the means which should be
adopted for training mathematical staff in adequate numbers for the universities
and polytechnics. Zaremba’s suggestion was to promote the best secondary-school
teachers to the university posts, but Janiszewski maintained that the only way to
proceed was to send enough students abroad to give Poland its own ‘mathematical
milieu’ on their return home, since only such a milieu could produce a mathematical
progeny more numerous and more active than the first generation. Janiszewski’s
ideas were followed, with the admirable results for Polish mathematics already
mentioned.
My view is that what proved good for Poland may be just as good for other
countries which now find themselves in the same situation as Poland was half a
century ago. What needs to be done, therefore,is to select a number of young people,
preferably at or near the end of their university course, who show promise of deve-
loping into researchers, and to send them for a few years to a centre of mathematical
learning. It might be in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the United States
of America, in France or in Poland, in Britain, Germany or Italy, chosen quite
possibly, not on scientific considerations, but for political or financial reasons,
or on the score of linguistic difficulties or traditional cultural links. During their
time abroad these young people will learn how to do research and will return home
with a scientific approach to problems. They should go to their centres to specialize
in a single branch of their subject and, on their return, will be able to bring up a
new generation of research workers probably more numerous and hence able to
cover a wider range of scientific interests. In their turn the latter must also be given
the fullest facilities for contacts abroad.

ORGANIZATION OF A MATHEMATICS CENTRE

It is not an easy matter to build up a centre of mathematics, in the sense of the

forms of organization in which all the mathematicians making up a mathematical
milieu are comprehended,and the work inevitably takes time.
Each organizational unit (School, Faculty, Faculty Department) wants its own
mathematical professorship, for such an arrangement is more convenient for the
organization of the unit’s work; but, in countries where the numbers of mathema-
ticians are inadequate, it is not usually possible to fill all the mathematical Chairs
with persons having all the required qualities. A possible remedy would be to
establish an institute of mathematics to serve the whole school, or even an inter-
establishment mathematical institute if a town has a number of schools where
mathematics are taught. Such an institute was opened in 1945 at Wroclaw, and its
faculty taught mathematics not only to the mathematics, physics and chemistry
students of the university, but also in all the departments of the Polytechnic School.
From the point of view of the standard of teaching, the experiment was conclusive,
and the institute was split into two-university and polytechnic-after several
years of fruitful work, only in deference to the secondary consideration of unified
arrangements for all the polytechnics in Poland.
N o mathematical centre or milieu where effective work is possible can exist

53
Basic documents

without a suitable library, and this may be yet another argument in favour of an
inter-establishment institute. A library costs much less than a modern laboratory,
but needs regular, if relatively small, appropriations. Even so, it is difficult to
procure back volumes of scienti6c journals; if they are available at all, prices are
prohibitive. A microfilm centre will therefore be absolutely necessary.
The Mathematics Seminar of the Marie Curie-Sklodowska University of Lublin
was established in 1945. Today, seventeen years later, we can appreciate how
greatly we have benefited from the publication of a mathematical journal (Annales
Universitatis Mariae Curie-Sklodowska, Section A-Mathematics). Obviously no
such joumal could contain the publications of the whole faculty, or let alone the
whole school, but simply some papers on mathematics, even though they may run
to no more than two such papers per issue, each twenty or thirty pages long.Publishing
a joumal of this type is a help towards the collection of a suitable library by exchange,
and also enhances the status of the centre issuing it. Lastly, it serves to make the
original work of faculty members known and thus also assists their advancement.
Universities might well have consolidated university presses publishing, as
appropriate, works on mathematics, physics, chemistry, or other sciences. The
press could also help in the publication of textbooks or duplicated lecture-notes.

TEXTBOOKS

It would be difficult to secure satisfactory results in mathematics teaching without

adequate supplies of textbooks, duplicated lecture notes and collections of exercises,
which must be readily enough available for each student to have his own copy,
and be written in a language students know well, and in terms that they can
understand.
The question of mathematics textbooks for physics students, like all aspects of
mathematics teaching to future physicists, is a problem on its own, but is not of
so much importance, since physics students must have a sufficient mathematical
background to be able to read textbooks intended primarily for mathematics
students.
The really difficult question is that of mathematics textbooks for students of
other branches of sciencwhemistry, biology or geology. If the course given is
to be ‘up-to-date’or ‘modem’,l i.e. if it is to impart the maximum of information
in the minimum time and so that it can be understood, it must be based on an
‘up-to-date’or ‘modern’textbook,within the grasp of the student. I have had some
scores of mathematics textbooks for students of other branches than mathematics
and physics through m y hands, whose titles or sub-titlesinclude the word ‘modern’.
Almost all show no trace of modern methods except in the printing, which may
be rather more modern than that of the standard textbooks not qualified as ‘modern’.
So far as I know, there is only one attempt at a new presentation of the course of
differential and integral calculus for non-mathematicians,2 which has not yet quite
finished its ‘running in’. A deíïnitive version of this tentative exposition would be
an invaluable contribution for teaching, and not solely for teaching in the universities.
To have ordinary textbooks suitable for students of particular sciences is not
the only necessity. ‘Extra’course textbooks suitable for chemistry, biology students
will also be required, for reference if need should arise. It is not easy for the non-
mathematician to find, for example, just those processes he needs, in the regular
literature of the subject; with workings under the theory of Fourier series, for

1. In the sense given to these terms on p. 50, ‘Outline syllabuses’.

2. K.Menger, Calculus-a Modern Approach, Boston, 1955.

54
 Mathematics as a basis for the experimental sciences

instance, a chemist will certainly not manage to find what he wants in one of the
recognized monographs (e.g. in A. Zygmund’s excellent book) as it is practically
certain that the answer to his problem cannot be found in a form which he can
understand and apply. This leads m e to the view that such reference books for
non-mathematicians (which w e may call ‘extra’courses) will be useful to those for
w h o m they are intended only if they are written in the same mathematical style
and using the same notations as the ‘basic’textbook since w e cannot ask chemists-
and still less biologists-to have all mathematical notations at their finger tips.
Things will be easier in many respects if students are sufficiently well acquainted
with foreign languages to be able to understand textbooks written in ‘conference’
languages (French and English, in particular). Inevitably, however, the moment
wilI come when some countries will have to change over to textbooks written in
the local languages, and this will undoubtedly be necessary when the universities’
second-generation specialists, produced on the spot by their senior confrères,reach
maturity.1 It is not easy, however, to write an original textbook, and it will therefore
be necessary to begin by publishing duplicated courses and translations of the best
extracts from world literature.

CONCLUSIONS

To provide sound and useful mathematics teaching for non-mathematiciansinvolves

the satisfaction of a certain number of prior requirements:
1. To begin with, the secondary school syllabus must be modernized.
2. Mathematics courses for non-mathematicians should provide a groundwork
for individual study and not a rigid mathematical canon.
3. A substantial part of the time allotted to mathematical studies should be set
aside for the theory of probabilities, numerical methods and their applications
in the numerical treatment of experimental data.
4. A satisfactory standard of instruction can be reached only if there are adequate
numbers of research scholars.
5. These research scholars should have their own library and, wherever possible,
their o w n journal.
6. Finally, students must have suitable textbooks available.

1. See p. 52. ‘The teaching staff’.

55
 III. ON THE TEACHING OF PHYSICS AS ONE OF
THE BASIC SCIENCES AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL

G.Holton
Professor of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.

The assignment given to m e by Unesco is both challenging and staggering. My

task is made possible only by the fact that a detailed factual survey of curriculum
practices, textbooks, etc., in all university physics teaching in the United States of
America is being undertaken simultaneously by Dr. W.C. Kelly of the American
Institute of Physics on behalf of both Unesco and IUPAP. The results of that survey
should be soon available to us. M y o w n discussion is intended to be complemen-
tary to that report.
Since I a m dealing with physics as one of the basic sciences at university level,
on the basis of personal participation in some current experiments in this field,
I shall indicate those areas where there seems to m e to exist a particular need for
further innovation and discussion. T o supplement m y o w n views I shall refer and
draw attention to relevant recent publications in our country on this topic, insofar
as they either extend or contradict these views.
It should be particularly remembered that I a m drawing on experience in the
U.S.A. Local conditions there are clearly in many ways unique, and establish
boundary conditions that do not necessarily directly apply to the experience in
other countries. For example, one half of our graduates from secondary school
go on to receive some form of college education, and about a quarter of our college
graduates in all fields (and half of those in the better colleges) are n o w heading for
higher degrees in graduate school; our university system is largely patterned on
private rather than state-controlled initiative, and this has helped to encourage the
Co-existence of the widest variety of curricula; and while basic physics teaching in
the U.S.A. until about five years ago was by and large a relatively undernourished
and unimaginative field, we are n o w beginning to see the influx of more money,
manpower, and the interest of ingenious and well-placed people, so that w e feel
now definitely to be in the early transition stages of a change in the teaching of all
sciences. (How deep-going this change will turn out to be is by no means clear
at present.)
Despite the necessarily local context of my discussion, I hope to single out those
features of m y broader topic which are not bound to local conditions. I intend
particularly that these pages may be of some use in countries which have to compress
the timetable for reaching the scientifically and technologically sophisticated stage
best suited to their wider aspirations. For I hold that the largest part of the problem
of ‘developing’countries is precisely the nations’ ability to compress this schedule;

56
 On the teaching of physics

and that ability in turn crucially depends on how well things go in the science
classroom. Indeed, our meeting at Dakar will be successful insofar as w e can suggest
how to capitalize on the conditions in ‘compressed-schedulecountries’ in such a
way as to make an order-of-magnitudeimprovement in basic science teaching.

IN W H A T SENSE IS PHYSICS ‘BASIC’

O f all the sciences, the physical ones are usually acknowledged to be the most basic.
To the philosophical arguments for this proposition in the nineteenth century,
ours has added practical and political ones. ‘Physical sciences occupy the front
place in natural sciences, and it is on their successful development that the progress
of allied sciences and of national economy does depend. Further prospects of tech-
nical progress are determined at present in the first place by the achievements of
the fundamental trends in physical science.’1 While this citation has been ascribed
to Chairman N. S. Krushchev, it might be equally well made by the head of any
other m o d e m state, or by most scientists, educators, or administrators the world
over. The chairman of the influential national commission on college physics in
the U.S.A. has recently elaborated on the basic role of physics, and some of the
problems this creates:
‘Sciences other than physics are requiring more and more of their students to
take at least one year of physics. The growing importance both of physical instrumen-
tation and of the use of theoretical physics concepts in engineering, biology,
chemistry, geology, and meteorology is making extended work in physics more
essential each year.
‘Aside from the requirements of the adjoining sciences, more students in the
humanities and the social sciences are and should be enrolling in introductory
physics courses. The recognition of the role of physical science as a chief determinant
of our culture, and the recognition of physics as a discipline having many of the
educational values associated with the classics in the nineteenth century are contri-
buting to this trend. Many institutions that recently required one year of natural
science for the A.B.degree are n o w requiring a year each of physical and biological
science, in recognition of the place of science as a liberal art.
‘The community of academic physicists will be hard pressed to meet all the
demands made upon it, yet it would be shirking its responsibility if it failed to do
so.’2
In a completely analogous way, Professor A. S. Akhmatov of the U.S.S.R.
delegation to the 1960 Unesco Paris Conference on International Education in
Physics has stressed the basic place of physics both for the other sciences and for
the general cultural requirements of educated men and women:
‘The theoretical and experimental development of physics during the last thirty
years, unprecedented in the history of science as regards its scope and successes,
and the beneficial effect of this development in almost all branches of theoretical
and applied knowledge, put physics in the forefront as a powerful means of compre-
hending nature and as a powerful lever of technical progress.
‘It is clear at present to everybody that it is precisely the progress of physics that
determines the possibilities of development in a very wide range of sciences, from

1. Quoted in: S. C. Brown and N. Clarke (Eds.),International Education in Physics.

Proceedings of the International Conference on Physics Education, Unesco House,
Paris, 18 July to 4 August 1960. New York, The Technology Press and John Wiley and
Sons, 1960.p. 132.
2. ‘ProgressReport of the Commission on College Physics’,Am. J. Phys., vol. 30 (October
1962), p. 17.

57
Basic documents

cosmology to biology and medicine. It is physics that determines to a large extent

the foundations of our outlook as well as the possibilities and limits of our practical
activities. One cannot be called a specialist or, for that matter, an educated person
unless one is familiar with a certain range of ideas and facts in the sphere of physics.’1

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS A N D OBJECTIVES FOR CURRICULA

These remarks serve to remind us of the enormously wide and varied spectrum of
purposes which basic physics university curricula must fulfil. The physics courses
must deal with the elementary materials and laws that structure the universe: they
are doors through which other sciences are entered; they are prototype examples
of rigorous scientific thought; they prepare the future physicist or other scientist,
or physicians, the engineer,the administrator, the citizen in a technologically oriented
society. Moreover, the basic physics course is usually one of the few links that help
to couple secondary school preparation with later specialization,physics with other
sciences (e.g. chemistry, biology, astronomy), scientific with technological sophisti-
cation, scientific knowledge and the rest of the cultural tradition.
Each of these tasks separately is as complex as it is important; and all of these
together amount to an assignment that is overwhelming. For students who take
only one high school or college physics course-as is still the case with the majority
of students in the U.S.A.-this course carries an impossible burden. In setting
a theoretical framework for basic physics curricula, w e should see that the
basic university physics course is meaningful only when it is regarded not as an
entity in itself, but as a bridge between prior science education in secondary school
on the one hand and later education in the university and beyond on the other
hand.
For example, I would urge that the university must bring pressure to bear on
secondary schools to assume that students come in with at least the necessary
minimum of preparation, and that in particular the basic university physics course
in future be constructed on the enforceable assumption of the student having passed
prior physical science school courses along the lines excellently described in the
report of N. Clarks’s International Committee on the Teaching of Physics in
Schools.? Precisely because it is an ambitious programme, this is one of those instan-
ces where a compressed-schedule country, in which large-scale changes are being
introduced with a will and with good planning, can hope to accomplish what is
practically impossible to do in more ‘advanced’ societies with self-satisfied, en-
trenched educational systems. To reinforce the urgency of this theme of necessary
interaction and mutual help of college and secondary school, I attach the relevant
Resolutions of the International Conference on Physics Education, 1960, as
Appendix A.
As on the input end of the basic course, so also on the output end the student
who has passed through the course, whether a future scientist or not, should find
available to him further courses that build on the coinpetences he has acquired in
accord with his particular further educational aims.3 To do less than this, to think

1. Cited in: S. C.Brown and N.Clarke, op. cit., p. 129.

2. Ibid., p. 12-21 (also in Physics Today, vol 14 (January 1961), p. 30-8). See also the
discussion on p. 136-7.
3. For example, the ‘Progress Report . . .’ (see footnote, p. 57), which points out on p. 3
that the introduction of more junior and senior courses to prepare college students for
graduate work in modern physics ‘may do more harm than good unless the necessary
groundwork for such courses has been laid carefully in the freshman and sophomore
years ...I.

58
 On the teaching of physics

of the basic course alone rather than in the context of the total educational pro-
gramme, would be as futile as building a stretch of highway that terminates in a
jungle at either end.
The recent discussion of introductory courses in the U.S.A.has been marked
by a great liveliness, large scope and frequent meetings-as well as by generous
subventions for financing the meetings and the reports, obtained from the General
Electric Company and from the National Science Foundation. Over the past seven
years, more than a hundred physicists and educators in physics, as well as adminis-
trators and research scientists in industry, have participated in one or more of
nearly a dozen separate, large multi-day meetings, called especially to consider
some aspects of the physics curriculum. Nobel laureates, presidential advisers,
prominent textbook authors, and dedicated researchers and teachers have all been
equally involved. Since 1960, a national seventeen-man Commission on College
Physics has been hard at work on further improving physics teaching in the U.S.A.
Over the recent years, a concensus has been forming on many matters which
should be of interest everywhere. One cardinal conclusion is the importance that
has to be attached by physicists, educators and administrators precisely to the
introductory or basic university physics course. As the recent Progress Report of
the Commission on College Physics stresses;
‘Physics departments are rated by most physicists in terms of their research
productivity, the quality of their graduate programmes, and their success in producing
undergraduate majors, with the weighting favouring the first of these. Yet a strong
case can be made that the most important work being done by any physics department
is that involved in the teaching of’ introductory courses. The numbers of students
enrolled in these courses is usually greater by orders of magnitude than the number
of majors. For many of the students, one introductory course may well represent
the only contact that they will ever make with physics.
‘Mostof us believe that a knowledge of the physical world, of the methods that
have made possible the rapid growth of this knowledge, and of the nature of the
process of physical inquiry are essential ingredients of the cultural ‘mix’ suitable
to the twentieth century. It follows w e have almost unlimited responsibility to those
students who will be the business and professional men and women, the intellectual
leaders, and the statesmen of a coming generation. The fact that one course gives
us our single chance with such students demands that this course be as typical of
the best of physics as is any other course that w e offer. The achievement of this
end is not easy; real ingenuity and inventiveness are required to present honest
physics to students with a minimum background in mathematics and, often, a lack
of interest in thoughtful observation and in logic.’1
These are some of the external boundary conditions for any discussion of curricula.
Internal boundary conditions should also be examined before turning to specific
curricula, methods, time allotments, and level. N o doubt the most important of
these conditions are the objectives which the basic course is to serve. Over the past
few years the aims and the curricula of basic university physics courses have been
discussed at a number of the related, nationwide conferences mentioned above.
The reports of these conferences reflect the judgement of the overwhelming majority
of physicists interested in these matters in our country, and the aims and curricula
proposed there have stood up well under scrutiny and experiment. For this reason
I shall cite relevant sections of the two most influential of these reports with respect
to objectives and curricula.I should almmention that, as a participant in the drafting
of the reports, 1 had found with some astonishment that agreement was relatively

1. Am. J. Phys., vol 30 (October 1962), p. VI (our italics).

59
Basic documents

easy to obtain within the drafting groups that had been arranged to represent
faithfully the existing variety of points of view.
The first report to be mentioned was the outcome of a widely representative
conference of university physicists held at Carleton College in Minnesota (and
hence referred to usually as the Carleton report); it was published in the American
Journal of Physics1 in its October 1957 issue-a significant coincidence with the
date on which the space age began.
The report asked at the outset that ‘the objectives which the course is intended
to achieve should be clearly and explicitly formulated’. Despite the fact that this
plea has a trite and familiar ring, it is in fact a task that is difficult, and rarely per-
formed with clarity and lack of self-deception.The report continues:
‘Good introductory physics courses have always been designed to give students
an acquaintance both (a) with physics as a process of inquiry and (b) with some
parts of the body of knowledge and of concepts that have been collected through
that process. One cannot accomplish either of these aims without directing some
effort toward the other. The relative importance of the two must be determined
in accordance with the needs, the interests, and the future plans of the students
and with the availability of teaching staff, laboratory facilities, and instruction
time. The fraction of the course that is explicitly and consciously directed toward
either goal is not necessarily proportional to the extent to which the corresponding
effect is produced.
‘It was the opinion of the conference that each instructor should try to decide
on the relative extent to which he should direct his energies, and those of his students,
toward the achievement of each of these and of other aims that seem relevant to
the course.Physics teachers have not devoted as much conscious thought to the establish-
ment of specific goals as is desirable.’2
There followed a list of suggested objectives meant to be applicable to all types
of physics courses-wether they are what I shall call Type A (namely, courses for
physics majors and engineering students), Type B (courses for majors in other
sciences and for pre-medical students), or Type C (courses for non-science majors,
e.g. liberal arts students). This list, repeatedly re-endorsed since, has been made
somewhat wider in a recent closely related version, published in the second report
to be cited here. That one was the result of a large and thorough set of meetings,
supported by the National Science Foundation and sponsored by the American
Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), published in September 1960 under the
title ‘Report of a Conference on the Improvement of College Physics Courses’.3
The list of six general objectives adopted for all college courses is worth studying
in detail-particularly with a view to the question whether our current courses do
indeed fulfil these aims, and if so, at what point, to what depth, and with what
testable evidence:
‘(a) The college course in physics should stimulate the interest of students in nature,
in natural law, in the developing field of physics, and in the applications of
physics to technology.
‘(b) It should famiIiarize beginning students with the elementary technical vocabulary
of physics, with its basic principles, concepts, and techniques. Not only is such
knowledge an essential foundation for the future work of all scientists, but
it is likely to be of practical value even to the non-scientist and is certain to
help him to understand the world in which he lives.

1. Am. J. Phys., vol. 25, no. 1 (October 1957).

2. Am. J. Phys., vol. 25 (October 1957), p. 419 (our italics).
3. Am. J. Phys., vol. 28, no. 6 (September 1960).

60
 On the teaching of physics

‘(c) It should develop the mental capacities of students by stimulating them to

accurate and meaningful thinking about scientific questions, and by providing
them with a basis for critical judgements over a wide range of subjects. It should
help them to acquire a high respect for disinterested inquiry and a flexible
and experimental attitude towards problems that can be approached scienti-
fically.
‘(d) So far as possible the physics course should give students a living scientific
experience that will enable them to understand scientists and their activities.
It should be the constant aim of the instructor to communicate as much as
possible of the spirit of scientific inquiry. This he can do both by emphasis
on the unfinished character of scientific knowledge and by occasional inter-
polations from the history of science.
There is, we believe, a growing realization among physics teachers of the fact
that a physics course can and should give its students some appreciation of
both the historical interaction between science and philosophy and the role of
science in the social ferment that pervades all cultures today.
Finally, the teacher of college physics should be perpetually interested in the
conservation of scientific talent. T o this end he should make every effort to
stimulate the creative faculties of gifted students without neglecting the cultiva-
tion of sound learning among those of lesser ability.
‘These general objectives are not equally feasible, nor are they equally relevant to
the traditional conception of the function of a course in physics in an American
college. Few, however, would question the desirability of any of these objectives
if it can be attained without serious detriment to the others. The items in the list
are in some respects less specific than those presented in the AAPT report on
“Improving the Quality and Effectiveness of Introductory Physics Courses” 1 in
several respects they build on and go beyond the aims listed in that report. Funda-
mentally, however, the two lists are in harmony.’2
A specific point to elaborate is the perhaps unexpected emphasis in items (d)
and (e) on the history, philosophy, and sociology of science. In the U.S.A.this
attitude has been growing during the last seventeen years. While I shall return to
this topic when we examine the proposed curricula themselves, it is well to cite
the discussion in the report on this point because it is not tied to specific curricula
implementations:
‘There is a new demand for more rigorous formulation of the basic physical
concepts, for more sophisticated discussions of the nature and function of physical
theories, and for a critical account of the processes by which scientific knowledge
is advanced and tested. In part, because of the intimate connexion between the
philosophy and history of science, there has been increased interest in the latter
subject as well. This trend appeals strongly to the non-scientific members of univer-
sity faculties and to all those concerned with problems of general education. Instruc-
tion in science through an historical and philosophical approach has a strong
potential appeal to many non-scientific liberal arts students because it makes
connexions with their other studies. It has value for scientific and non-scientific
students alike, because it readily brings to light the sociological relation of science
to the rest of our culture and points up the central role of science in the intellectual

1. Am. J. Phys., vol. 25 (1957), p. 417.

2. Am. J. Phys., vol. 28 (September 1960), p. 571-2. The equivalent list of aims in the
Carleton Conference Report was most recently endorsed again in the Report of the
Summation Committee of the Denver Conference, Am. J. Php., vol. 30 (March 1962),
p. 156.

61
Basic documents

history of mankind. By placing the development of physics in the context of other

intellectual activities, it is better able to bring out the spirit of science and to
communicate some of that spirit to students.
‘The urge to give added depth to courses in physics by giving them greater philo-
sophical sophistication and the urge to tie up the description of today’s physics
with the social and historical context in which it arose are closely connected. They
are not the same thing, however. So one can say that there are three principal
varieties of internal pressure that can influence the conscientious and enthusiastic
teacher of today who wishes to improve the quality of his instruction. These are,
first, the desire to bring into his course more atomic and nuclear physics, more
quantum theory and relativity; second, the desire to give added meaning to his
teaching by persistently asking the question “HOWdo w e know ?” and by subjecting
the concepts and laws of physics to a somewhat more philosophical scrutiny than
heretofore; and third, the desire to present his science in an historical and socio-
logical context. ...’1

CURRICULUM CONTENT -GENERAL

W h e n w e n o w come to the heart of the matter, the choice of subject matter for
the one-year (or two-year) basic university physics course, w e find in recent rep-
resentative thinking two widely accepted ‘principles of parsimony’ (in the sense of
Occam’s Razor) that should be of particular interest to all compressed-schedule
efforts: (a) the range of individual topics to be treated should be kept to a mini-
m u m in favour of increased depth, and (b) the number of qualitatively different
types of physics courses (for different audiences) should also be reduced as far
as possible. Here, as in physics itself, unnecessary proliferation is to be zealousIy
shunned.
The discussion of content as approved by the Carleton Conference has here also
stood up very well; it has been incorporated into texts and courses, and reaffirmed
on review. These recommendations are so clearly and succinctly put that I believe
w e can do no better than study them directly and in full, particularly since I see
m y task to provide not a sample syllabus-which would be hardly defensible-but
an assembly of the best reflections on the bases for making syllabuses.
‘The selection of content determines in large measure the success with which
physics teachers and students will achieve the above goals. The conference felt most
strongly that physics teachers must reduce drastically the number of topics discussed
in introductory physics courses. A more critical and parsimonious selection of
content would permit a pace that encourages both reflectionon the part of the student
and a proper regard for depth and intellectual rigour.
‘Physics, as a body of knowledge, is n o w far too extensive to receive adequate
general coverage in an introductory course. The instructor must not sacrifice depth
and understanding by attempting to cover too many topics in encyclopaedic fashion.
As one of our colleagues has well said: “Let us uncover physics, not cover it”.
‘It was the opinion of the conference that a satisfactory introductory physics
course could be constructed around the following seven basic principles and concepts,
and the material leading up to them:
‘1. Conservation of momentum.
‘2.Conservation of mass and energy.
‘3. Conservation of charge.
‘4.Waves.

1. Ibid., p. 572-3.

62
 On the reaching of physics

‘5. Fields.
‘6.The molecular structure of matter.
‘7.The structure of the atom.
‘Furthermore, these seven principles and concepts outline the minimum content
which any introductory course must encompass in order to provide a satisfactory
treatment of present-day physics.
‘Lest this list appear too brief, we point out that the discussion of such topics
as Newton’s laws of motion would ordinarily be included in the development of
the principles of conservation of energy and of momentum at an introductory level.
‘To provide illustrations of the ways in which these topics may be incorporated
into a course, the conference requested three of its members to prepare syllabuses
that would indicate the scope of possible courses, the level of discussion, and the
latitude allowed the instructor within the proposed framework. The authors were
requested to prepare these syllabuses1 on the basis of existing introductory courses
designed for different student groups.
‘Few instructors will wish to limit their material to the bare minimum of topics.
Most will wish to enrich the course by the use of additional topics, chosen from
classical and modern physics. The instructor’s own interest and special competence,
as well as the interests and needs of his students, will best guide him in his choice.
Some examples of such topics are:
‘1. The electromagnetic theory of radiation.
‘2. The second principle of thermodynamics.
‘3. The special theory of relativity.
‘4.Quantum theory.
‘The instructor should select sparingly from these topics or from other enriching
subjects and should introduce into the course only that material which he can discuss
adequately in the available time.
‘In treating the basic principles and concepts listed above, and in determining
additional topics to be included in the course, the instructor may follow various
procedures. For example, he may use a historical approach, he may give special
consideration to the pie-professionalrequirements of the students, or he may select
topics of particular importance in the development of an understanding of contem-
porary physics.
‘It is apparent that differences in content and approach can and should exist
among courses. However, whatever the content selected, it should:
‘I. Consist of sufficiently few topics so that each can be treated with thoroughness
and intellectual rigour.
‘2.Present both classical and m o d e m physics as growing subjects, having present-day
frontiers in all areas.
‘3. Contribute to an understanding and appreciation of the unity of physics.2
Three other general principles that have emerged are noteworthy. One is that
so far as possible the basic course should reflect the unity of science rather than be
the repository of unconnected pieces of scientific information. A second is that modern
materia1 and examples should be introduced as widely as possible from the very
beginning of the course (though this does not by any means imply that a basic
course must necessarily begin with atomic and nuclear physics!). And a third is

1. ‘Syllabus for the One-Year College Course in Physical Science’, by Gerald Holton,
Am. J. Phys., vol. 25 (October 1957), p. 425-9; ‘One-Year Introductory Course in a
Liberal Arts College’, by Walter C. Michels, Am. J. Phys., vol. 25 (October 1957!,
p. 430-2; ‘Three-Semester Introductory Course for Engineers and Science Majors ,
by R. M. Whaley. Am. J. Phys., vol. 25 (October 1957). p. 432-5.
2. Am. J. Phys., vol. 25 (October 1957), p. 420-1.

63
Basic documents

that, at least in the U.S.A.context, we encourage not one or a few solutions, but
as many individual different solutions as can claim respect. At the conference setting
up the College Commission on Physics, this was strongly stated
‘This conference has taken a strong position against the endorsement of any
single course. In fact, it is evident that there is no content structure which would
satisfy the requirements of all instructors and all institutions. There is, on the
contrary, room in our university system for a broad spectrum of structures to serve
the needs of a variety of personal inclinations in a variety of environments. The
potentialities of new and unconventional structures should not be ignored. Indivi-
duals and groups who embark upon projects of this kind should be given every
encouragement. Only through such activities can we expect to maintain both the
variety and the high quality which our aims demand.’l This point is ideologically
typical in the American context. The traditional way of achieving excellence has
been through pluralistic, individually competitive efforts, rather than through one
or two monolithically organized attempts. I suspect that it becomes very difficult
to follow the former rather than the latter model when the timetable of intended
achievement on a national scale is severely compressed and particularly when
manpower is in short supply. Nevertheless, even under such conditions the risks
inherent in monolithic rather than competitive intellectual enterprises must be
carefully pondered.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT-PREDOMINANTLY TYPE-A COURSES

In reviewing the best thinking in the U.S.A. on specific curriculum contents of the
basic university physics courses, it is well to distinguish between the three types
of courses (A, B, and C), and to direct attention to the development of ideas as
expressed in recent publications over the past few years in so far as they appear
to m e to reflect generally held views.
Concerning the Type-A course, i.e. the basic physics course for physics majors
and engineers, it was thought by the CarIeton Conference Report of 1957 that the
typical existing one-year introductory course with laboratory offers sufficient time
to fulfil the minimum objectives for these students. ‘An additional year of physics
should be provided for engineers, as has already been recommended by the AIP
Committee on Engineering Education. 2 Students majoring in mathematics and
students planning to teach physics in the secondary schools should be advised to
take this (Type-A) course.’3 To give substance to the description of a “inimum-
objective’Type-A course as currently offered in the U.S.A.,I attach as Appendix B
the result of a valuable statistical survey of current practices, made by Dr.
L. W.Phillips in 1961. It includes details on total class time spent per year (ten
semester hours of credit corresponding roughly to one-quarterof a student’s available
time for one academic year), timing of the course, mathematics requirements,
average enrolment, division of time between large demonstration lectures, smaller
discussion sections, and laboratory work, etc. It will be seen that the new trend in
Type-A courses is for a striking upgrading of the level, e.g., toward a two-year
introductory course, using calculus from the beginning.
A m o n g the number of course syllabuses published in recent years to implement
general objectives congruent with those of the Carleton report listed above, I would
direct the attention of the serious investigator to the following articles, most of
which represent considerable co-operative achievements.
1. Am. J. Phys., vol. 28 (September 1960), p. 569.
2. Physics Today,December 1955.
3. Am. J. Phys., vol. 25 (October 1957), p. 422.

64
 On the teaching of physics

Arons, Arnold. ‘Structure, methods, and objectives of the required freshman

calculus-physics course at Amherst College’, Am. J. Phys., vol. 27 (December
1959), p. 658-66.
A one-year course with both rigour (e.g., simultaneous development and use of the
calculus) and breadth (e.g.,historical discussions), compulsory for all students at
Amherst College. Combines Types A, B, and C.
Michels, W.C. ‘One-yearintroductory course in a liberal arts college’,Am. J. Ph-vu.,
vol. 25 (October 1957), p. 430-2.
Applicable to a one-year course for a small college in which students in science
and mathematics share the course with all others. It is therefore also a combination
of Types A, B, and C.
Whaley, R.M.‘Threesemesterintroductory course for engineers and science majors’,
Am. J. Phys.vol. 25 (October 1957), p. 432-5.
Designed for a large university as a specifically Type-A course.
Akhmatov, A. S.,in S. C. Brown and N. Clarke, op. cit., p. 137.
Sequence of course syllabus for a technical college in the U.S.S.R.There is a
close parallel between this syllabus and those for corresponding colleges in the
U.S.A., for example.
Fuller, E.C.;Palmer, R. R. ‘Beloit Conference on teaching physics and chemistry
in a combined course’, December 1961.
Copies available from authors, Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin, U.S.A.The result
of a National Science Foundation sponsored conference for investigating whether
and how to teach introductory physics and chemistry together in one course. With
syllabuses, texts,etc., of courses in eleven colleges and universities as given at present.
Some of these are combinations of Type A, B, and C courses.
Because this is a novel and apparently viable development, and in line with the
injunction to oppose proliferation of courses, I attach as Appendix C the discussion
of two main points, taken from that report.
Lodge, John I. ‘Report of the Denver Conference on curricula for undergraduate
majors in physics’ and essays by some of the conference speakers, Am. J. Phys.,
vol. 30 (March 1962), p. 153 f.
This set of essays deals not only with the basic course, but with the whole problem
of the science education of physics majors in four-year colleges. A more balanced
and useful account of this conference, particularly with respect to the basic course,
is contained in the full report of the papers delivered and the group summaries
obtainable in lithoprint editions, two volumes, from the Conference Director, Byron
E. Cohn, Department of Physics, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
A m o n g the points of interest for the Type-A course here is the insistence that
‘the introductory course, whenever possible, should begin in the freshman year
preferably in the first term’; that ‘the course should use the concepts of calculus
and should emphasize care and rigour in the presentation of a reasonable number
of topics rather than attempt encyclopaedic coverage ...’;that ‘topicsfrom “modern
physics” should be included in the course and ... well integrated throughout’;
and that ‘there should be a sequential development such that the essential
unified nature of physics becomes apparent to the student as early as possible’.l

1. Am. J. P h y ~ ,vol. 30 (March 1962), p. 156-7.A number of thoughtful and specific

recommendations are contained in the paper by R. A. Reitz and in the three group
summaries of Groups AT, AII, and A111 (in the lithoprint edition cited above).

65
Basic documents

Crane, H.R., ‘The First A n n Arbor Conference on curricula for undergraduate

majors in physics’, lithographed edition, Edwards Brothers, Inc., A n n Arbor,
Michigan, 1962.
Analogous to the Denver Conference, but of representatives of university physics
departments (rather than four-year colleges), concerned with matching undergra-
duate work to graduate school needs.
Michels, W. C., ‘Progress Report of the Commission on College Physics’, Am. J.
Phys., vol. 30 (October 1962).
Some parts have been quoted above. T w o examples of ‘radically new’ approaches
to introductory physics courses which are n o w being developed are briefly discussed.
One is a one-year Type-A,-B,and -Ccourse at Washington University, St. Louis,
Missouri. It starts with classical particle mechanics, but draws heavily on twentieth-
century physics ; similarly, wave motion is introduced with classical equipment but
soon connected to electron diffraction. The other is a two-year Type-A course at
California Institute of Technology, with lectures by Richard Feynman, which from
the start place great emphasis on the quantum-mechanicalnature of modern physics.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT-PREDOMINANTLY TYPE-B A N D TYPE-C COURSES

Several factors combine to assure that there will usually be more than one basic
physics course offered on U.S.A.campuses. From the point of view of the pure
mechanics of running the course, w e have to deal with the great spread of interests
in the student body, the natural maximum in the number of students that can be
handled in a demonstration lecture, their very varied preparations (because of the
absence of nation-wide standards of secondary school curricula or performance),
not to speak of the preferences of the instructor for dealing with a certain group
of students rather than with others. Small colleges may not be able to afford giving
more than one basic course, and other colleges may-at least for a time-pursue
a h e experiment involving their very best lecturers in one joint basic course; but
by and large, the pattern of basic physics courses at present seems to be stabilizing
around two or three types: The pre-professional course discussed above (Type-A)
lasting three or four semesters; a one-year course for premedical and other non-
physics science students (TypeB); and a one-year course for liberal arts students,
sometimes called a General Education or Integrated Education course (Type-C);
or one serving both as Type-B and Type-C together.
Apart from the mechanical reasons for this pattern, there are important differences
in the educational function of basic physics courses designed for students w h o will
not continue in the physical sciences as against those w h o will. I insist that the main
subject matter of Type-A, Type-B, and Type-C courses can and should be the same,
despite the necessary differences in detail (e.g., mathematical sophistication, addi-
tional material beyond the list of ‘minimum’topics given in the Carleton Report,
etc.). But the basic university physics course offered to non-physical science students
(Types-B and -C,or B + C) should take particular care to do its share toward the
total orienting process of the young student which is the true function of the college
as an institution for education rather than merely for training.
This point is so basic that it merits discussion.1 The total orienting process of
the college student has, it seems to me, at least five goals. If he is to emerge as an
educated and sane person from our educational institutions, the student should

I. This passage is based on a paper presented at a Conference on Science in General

Education at Michigan University, Oakland, Michigan, M a y 1962.

66
 On the teoching of physics

be well on the road to recognizing which are his own talents, whatever they may
be; second, he should know enough about his physical home, this universe, not
to feel either overwhelmed by it or a total stranger in it; third, he should know how
to be in fruitful relationship with his fellow men; fourth, he should know what
the past means and what the probable future may be; and fifth, he should know
the difference between, and the relative functions of, his mind and his soul.
The study of science can obviously not contribute equally, or even predominantly,
to every one of these goals. But my fundamental claim is that, particularly, the
student who will not go on in scientific studies can and should have science courses
which attempt to contribute meaningfully to each of these general goals of education.
This does not mean in the least that such courses have to be soft and simple; on the
contrary, precisely because of their ambitious goals they surely will have to make
as taxing demands on the student (and, it should be added, on the instructor) as
any he will ever encounter.
T o do justice to the first goal would mean seriously challenging, helping, testing,
watching the student, to enable him to discover his abilities in scientific work,
including the laboratory, whether he himself had known of any such abilities or
not. The second goal implies the all-but-impossibleattempt to teach him, in the
limited time available, enough basic and substantive material to show that the
natural universe is fundamentally knowable. To do this right would require at a
minimum, in my view, a year of selected work in physics, with elements of the
calculus developed separately or as one goes along-and with excursions into
elements of astronomy and chemistry-and then a second hard year of selected
work in chemistry and biology. The third goal implies that he should hear at least
on occasion about the social activity called ‘science’(which is not at all identical
with the textbook content also called ‘science’); indeed, in such a course we have
a striking opportunity to show the magnificent plurality of roles of the individual-as
a transformer of accumulated knowledge, as a member of a chain of teachers and
students, as a collaborator in teams and social groups.
The fourth goal implies such courses will not shrink from showing at the proper
time that science has its historic tradition as well as its characteristic way of growing
and, as it were, of anticipating the future. For on the one hand, science grew not
by the destruction of old knowledge and rebuilding on totally new lines, but rather
like a tree, ring by ring, where the inner layers are invisible though nevertheless
still responsible for the strength of the whole structure of which only the outer part
is seen. And, on the other hand, scientists do differ from most other scholars in the
degree of optimism and future-directedness,a quality that at its best is the proper
antidote to the existential despair so fashionable elsewhere.
The fifth goal would require us to tell our students-r have them read-at least
on occasion what has been thought to be the philosophical meaning of scientific
knowledge; this is, of course, often said to be an unnecessary preoccupation, parti-
cularly by scientists-with the significant exception of the really great ones, from
Aristotle to Kepler, and from Newton to Niels Bohr.
It should be immediately obvious that I a m not in favour of throwing the non-
science student into the introductory departmental specialty course directed primarily
to an audience expected to make physics or engineering its profession, as is still
often done. In such a course, the orientation function is necessarily a narrow one.
Here, the classroom usually resembles a training ground at the foot of a large moun-
tain that is to be conquered stage by stage by selected students in later years. Here,
next to the student with lungs that naturally accommodate themselves to high altitudes
and who was born with climbing boots on his feet, there sits by administrative
edict the eternal lowlander, the stolid farmer or congenital subway rider, and the

67
Basic documents

dreaming sailor, or even the adventurous deepsea diver. Silently do these listen
and exercise the mass of technical instructions guaranteed to pay off in the exhilarat-
ing climb in which, alas, they themselves will, of course, never take part.
These remarks provide the theoretical background against which I would suggest
one views the practical solutions, the design of Type-E or Type-C course curricula.1
The pure Type-B course is so old and so standardized that very few recent publica-
tions exist-or are needed-that describe it. A number of pure Type-C courses
are described in a recent book, Science in General Education, edited by R.R. Haun.2
In line with the principle of parsimony enunciated earlier, I prefer to draw attention
here to the newer, combined Type-B and -C course, which should be of special
interest to condensed-schedule efforts that have to work with a short supply of
trained manpower. A n article entitled ‘Syllabus for the one-year college course in
physical science’, commissioned from this author by the Carleton Conference to
illustrate operationally how the recommendations of the Carleton Report may be
implemented in a course for students not intending to major in the physical sciences,
was published in 19573 and has been in use at Harvard College, among others.
As Appendix D,I attach the description, syllabus, reading, experiments, etc., given
in that article, updated to take into account recent developments in this Type-(B + C)
course. As in the Type-A course, the rapid change in the state of physics has forced
a severe reassessment of what should go into such a course, and helps to explain
why many topics held to be sacrosanct some ten or twenty years ago no longer
appear in the syllabus at all.
For the consideration of this Unesco conference I would particularly suggest
that the discussion concentrate on two aspects of the basic university physics course:
1. The two-year Type-A course closely linked with (a) previous training in science
and mathematics, (b) concurrent further mathematics training in other college
courses, and (c) subsequent science courses expected to be taken by the pre-pro-
fessional physics or engineering student, and
2. The combined Type-(B + C) one-year physical science course, closely linked
with (a) previous training in science and mathematics, (b) concurrent further
mathematical development as required in the same course, and (c) a subsequent
one-year natural science course continuing the science education into more
chemistry and biology. While other types of courses will continue to exist, in
so far as is possible students should, in m y view, be channelled :more and more
into one or the other of these. In so far as this twofold scheme represents a saving
of high-level staff and of manpower that otherwise might be more fragmented
among larger numbers of physics courses, it should be possible to insist that
these courses are given and supervised by the most talented and eminent department
members w h o can be persuaded to assume the important and difficult task of
introducing large numbers of students to our beloved science.

RECENT W O R K ON LABORATORY AND APPARATUS

The role and suitability of laboratory work in basic physics courses has been
vigorously discussed since that novel idea was introduced. A m o n g recent contribu-
tions to this subject in our country I suggest study of the following items:

1. A few courses seem to have achieved satisfactory results under local conditions with
all three types of students, as listed in the last section under items (a), (b), and (e).
2. W.C.Brown Co.,Dubuque, Iowa, 1960.
3. G.Holton, Am. J. Phys., vol. 25 (October 1957), p. 425-9.

68
 On rhe feachinrr of physics

Brown, S. C.,‘A survey of elementary physics laboratories’, Am. J. Phys., vol. 21

(1953), p. 411 f.
A report on laboratory administration, instruction, and grading in twenty-five
colleges and universities.
Overbeck, C.J., editor, Proceedings of the Northwestern University Conference
on the Training of College Physics Laboralory Assistants, photo-offset edition,
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 1954.
A lively and useful compendium on an often-neglected problem, reflecting the
varying experiences of over forty participants. Such training is, of course, important
not only for the health of the course itself, but also is perhaps the best way of instruct-
ing future physics instructors.
Michels, W.C.,‘Laboratory instruction in general college physics’, A m . J. Phys.,
vol. 25 (October 1957), p. 436-40.
Summary of Proceedings of the Connecticut Conference on Laboratory Instruction
in General Physics, which was published under this title in photo-offset edition at
the University of Connecticut,Storrs, Connecticut, 1957. The longer report contains
also an annotated bibliography of articles on the subject.
A strong plea is made to make the laboratory meaningful to the course objectives
and challenging to the student. The whole range of devices-from entirely ‘free’
laboratory to iigid ‘fill-in’forms-is discussed, showing how closely the laboratory
part of a course is coupled to the course’s history and the instructor’s temperament.
Michels, W.C.,‘Therole of experimental work’, Am J. Phys., vol. 30 (March 1962),
p. 172-8;and Neher, H.V.,‘The role of experimental work’, Am. J. Phys., vol. 30
(March 1962), p. 186-90.
These were part of the Denver Conference (see above); comments from three study
groups at that conference are given in the report cited on p. 19.
Michels, W.C.,‘Progressreport of the commission on college physics’, A m . J. Phys.,
vol. 30 (October 1962).
Notes the general ‘agreement that the laboratory needs improvement more than
does any other portion of physics teaching. These opinions echo those of a great
majority of teaching physicists. ... At least one of the causes of the general dissa-
tisfaction with laboratories and demonstrations lies in the fact that new apparatus
has not been made available to match the changes that have been taking place in
the content and tone of physics courses. Although needs have been recognized
for many years, most of the commercially available equipment consists either of
slightly modified versions of old items or of apparatus that has been designed for
other purposes and whose educational function is an accidental by-product. At
the present time we are badly in need of as sweeping a change as was introduced
in the late nineteenth century and that made available the calorimeters, linear
expansion apparatus, and the other items that still crowd many of our stock rooms.
Such a change can be brought about only if physicists exercise considerable inven-
tiveness and if ways can be found to clear the bottlenecks that impede production
and distribution.’

I can select here only a few topics for brief comment. The first is, again, the formula-
tion of aims. If there is relatively little time for the laboratory, as is the case in most
U.S.A. college courses, one must tailor one’s hopes to manageable proportions.
The primary purpose of laboratory work in the introductory physics course is the
teaching of fundamental concepts and principles. Only if there were enough time
could one hope to do more (e.g., create research atmosphere, develop experimental

69
skills in a serious manner, etc.). Therefore, I have come to see that one should select
for the laboratory exercise those concepts, principles, and devices (e.g., uncertainty
of measurement, mass, conservation of energy, electronic circuits, radioactive half-
life) which students can more easily and clearly grasp when the discussion in lecture
and conference is supplemented by actual experience in the laboratory. Thus, labora-
tory work plays the role of a teaching aid in the design of the whole course.
In addition, we can hope even in a brief laboratory to give each student a chance
to expose himself to the problems of experimental inquiry-to learn how to plan
the attack upon a physical problem, how to recognize when things go well, and
h o w to help oneself when they do not, how to evaluate the reliability of observations,
and how to get the most information and enjoyment out of a job well done.
In many cases, a subject can be covered just as well in the laboratory as in lectures
(e.g., geometrical optics). This is worth trying, for it not only frees precious lecture
time, but also gives the student extra motivation for the laboratory. 1
Manpower and money are clearly the main difficulties with many laboratory
courses. The tendency must be strenuously resisted to let the laboratory become
the stepchild of the course. The assistants should be the best and the best trained
graduate students or, preferably, higher faculty members. In any large course a
good part of one physicist's time should be reserved for watching and improving
the laboratory; for example, one or two experiments should routinely be jettisoned
each year to make room for newer and more up-to-date physics and apparatus.
This is expensive and time-consuming-but unless one insists on it, one will soon
find the course to have settled into a state of petrification.
The unavailability of good, inexpensive, ingenious apparatus is another road
block, as indicated in the quotation above. Hence, one of the aids a course head
must have is accessibility to and budget for machine shop, supervisory personnel,
trained curators, etc. A m o n g the publications of tested ideas for laboratory and
lecture experiments, I single out the following:
Kelly, W . C., Apparatus for Physics Teaching: Reprints of Articles from the American
Journal of Physics, published by the American Institute of Physics for the
Committee on Apparatus for Educational Institutions of the American Association
of Physics Teachers,335 East 45 Street,N e w York 17,N e w York (September 1961).
Apparatus Drawing Project prepared by R. G.Marcley for the American Institute
of Physics, N e w York, and pubIished by Plenum Press, Inc., 227 West 17 Street,
N e w York 11, N e w York.
Contains detailed description of and professional shop drawings of thirty major
pieces of laboratory and demonstration equipment, many on the basic physics
course level. The material had been published during the past two years in part
in the American Journal of Physics as a project that is continuing. The apparatus
for many of these experiments has been constructed on the basis of these drawings,
and is available in relatively inexpensive kit form from the Ealing Corporation,
33 University Road, Cambridge 38, Massachusetts.
Brown, T. B., Editor, The Lloyd William Taylor Manual of Advanced Undergraduate
Experimenls in Physics, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Reading, Massachusetts
(1 959).
A m o n g the many experiments described here, one can find good hints for improving
basic physics experiments.

1. A laboratory manual with this point of view has been prepared by the author for his
courses under the title Experimentcl1 Physics (Harvard University), Department of
Physics, Cambridge, Mass.,1956.

70
 ~ _
O n the teaching
_
of physies
-~ ~

‘Apparatus notes’, ‘Apparatus drawing project’, ‘Reviews’ of new apparatus, and

other such articles, appearing regularly in the American Journal of Physics.
Eaton, V. E.,Proceedings of the Wesleyan University Conference on Lecture D e m o n -
strations, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.
A discussion of all aspects of lecture demonstrations, under the headings: value
of demonstration lectures, demonstrations, demonstration techniques, television,
space and equipment, inexpensive and simple apparatus, developing skilled demon-
strators, problems of curator and assistants. The main recommendations are given
in the article ‘Wesleyan Conference on demonstration lectures’, Am. J. Phys.,
vol. 28, September 1960, p. 539-41.
There are other efforts that are very promising and to which in such a brief article
adequate justice cannot be done. A Science Teaching Centre has been set up at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge in which distinguished faculty
members, on time released from teaching duties, are helping to develop systematically
new and interesting teaching apparatus, films, kits for doing laboratory work in
the student’s own room, etc. This excellent idea should be more widely copied and
supported by academic administrators. A number of other kits for home and
laboratory work are being prepared at the Educational Services, Incorporated
(ESI)in Watertown, Massachusetts (in addition to the vigorous fìlm developments
of this group, which has now expanded from secondary school curriculum aids to
college as well as elementary school levels). And a group of physicists at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N e w York (under R. Resnick and H. Meiners) are
making an intensive attack to locate and describe all new and improved pieces of
lecture demonstration equipment for college physics, to be published in a year or
two in a book that is planned to supplement the long established book on this
subject by R. M.Sutton. 1

FILMS, TELEVISION A N D OTHER NEWER TEACHING AIDS

It is clear that these newer teaching aids are going to loom large in the United
States in the near future, but it is also evident that few people or organizations are
sure about the direction and potential of the course of development. At present,
interesting developments at a number of places are being watched with care by all
who are concerned with the teaching of physics. As more money is becoming available
for physics teaching, and as the staffing problem continues to mount, there is no
doubt that a break in tradition is coming. It may well be that ten years from now
no good physics lecturer, particularly for large groups, will want to do without
the substantial use of film and closed-circuit television. W h e n planning and building,
we should anticipate that day even now.
Some resource discussions for these newer media are contained in the following
publications:
Brown, S. C.;Clarke, N.,‘The use of television and &ns in physics teaching’,
Chapter 9,op. cit.
Contributions by H.E. White, W. C. Kelly and others, mainly concerned with
United States practices.
Cassirer, Henry R., Television Teaching Today. Unesco, 1960, Chapters 1 to 10,
particularly p. 99-113.

1. R. M. Sutton, Demonstration Experiments in Physics, New York, McGraw-Hill Book

Co.,Inc., 1938.
71
Bosic documents

Though mainly concerned with teaching below the university level, this book contains
careful data and stimulating suggestions for all levels.
Weber, R. L. ‘Films for students of physics’, Am. J. Phys., vol. 29 (April 1961),
p. 222-33, and Supplement I, Am. J. Phys., vol 30 (May 1962), p. 321-7.
Excellent catalogues of selected available films,with sources, costs, etc., for teaching
basic university physics, including those prepared by ES1 and the Visual Aids
Committee of AAPT. A number of problems and plans in connexion with the use
of fìIm are discussed in Michels, W.C. (p. 69, ‘Progress report ...’ of this essay).
Tendam, D.J.; McLeod, R. R.;Snow, R. E.,‘Anexperimental evaluation of the
use of instructional films in college physics’, Am. J. Phys., vol. 30 (August 1962),
p. 594-601.
Presents data in support of assertion that (1) ‘presentationof lecturedemonstration
experiments by film is as effective instructionally as the conventional method of
presentation, and (2) student achievement is independent of the distance up to 60 ft.’
from the demonstration for ‘both methods of presentation’.
‘Resource Letters’. Initiated by the author of this report, and developed with the
backing of the United States Commission on College Physics, a new teaching aid
has begun to be available recently. In the Commission’s Progress Report (see
p. 69) this is decribed as follows:
‘Although the commission is placing emphasis on co-operative efforts in course
development, it recognizes that the success of any course must depend primarily
on the instructor.Very few instructors are able to limit their teaching to the subjects
in which they can keep abreast of all current developments. Hence the commission,
in its early deliberations, saw the need for regularly issued bibliographies, each
designed to place in the hands of college teachers references to significant books
and articles dealing with some one part of physics. This concept was developed. ..
into a plan for ‘Resource Letters’ which include not only [critical] bibliographical
references but also lists of films and apparatus, with sufficient comment to aid the
instructor in his search for the most suitable materials for his purpose. ...On behalf
of the commission, three Resource Letters were prepared during 1961-62:
“PL-1,Polarized light”. Prepared by William A. Shurcliff. Published in Am.
J. Ph~s., vol. 30, p. 227-30 (1962).
“PP-I.Plasma physics”. Prepared by Sanborn C. Brown. Published in Am. J.
Phy~.,vol. 30, p. 303-6 (1962).
“SRT-I. Special relativity theory”. Prepared by Gerald Holton. Published in Am.
J. Phy.~., vol. 30, p. 462-9 (1962).’
The American Institute of Physics, which has distributed the first three Resource
Letters to all teaching physicists in the U.S.A., is n o w preparing packages of reprints
to go with all future Resource Letters; titles scheduled for early offering are ‘Quantum
and Statistical Aspects of Light’, ‘Mössbauer Effect’, ‘Kinematics and Dynamics
of Satellites’.
Inexpensive books to supplement a student’s course reading. The rise of paperback
books in the U.S.A.has had its effect on the physics course also, first in the
Science Study Series (Doubleday and Co.) for secondary schools, and now in
a number of newly starting series on the next-higherlevel,including the Momentum
Books of the Commission on College Physics. In certain sciences (e.g., biology),
enough good, inexpensive, short books have been published so that an instructor
can ‘mix’his o w n textbook for his class from existing parts. This may well become
not at all unusual in basic physics courses in the future. Special topics and newer

72
 On the reaching of physics

engineering applications of science will certainly find their way soon into our
courses by this device.

FUR- PROBLEMS A N D CHALLENGES

Further beyond the horizon are a number of other problems and challenges which
do not yet appear to be on the way to solutions. A m o n g them is the possible use
of teaching machines to supplement instructors;the use of small groups of interacting
students, as in reading or ‘research’seminars in the basic physics course; the neglected
possibility of co-operative relationship with other academic departments (not only
mathematics, engineering, chemistry, and astronomy, but also biology, history,
and philosophy) in order to make all their basic courses more meaningful; and,
most strikingly, the preparation of useful and validated tests for the selection of
students, for the course itself, and for the evaluation of curricular changes.1
O n the other hand, one can see everywhere signs of an increased awareness that
the physics teacher has learned a technique for amplifying his effectiveness which
has been of great and increasing help to the physics researcher for over thirty years.
H e is learning that the older model of isolated teachers in isolated systems can be
supplemented by the newer trend of rising strong, businesslike, non-bureaucratically
oriented organizations-to help set standards, to exchange ideas, to collaborate
with similar groups elsewhere, to keep self-examination and innovation before us,
and to help raise money for better instruction and experiments. W e need good,
flexible organizations, controlled by the concerned instructors themselves, on the
local, national, and international level. Groups and organizations such as a local
Science Teaching Centre, a national Association of Physics Teachers, and a section
of Unesco or I U P A P can and should aspire to these several functions. Particularly,
the rapidly developing regions need the strength and stability of such organizations.
This,I have no doubt, is an essential point to consider at this conference for every
one of the sciences represented here.
This list of unmet challenges turns my thought back to the specific problems
of the compressed-schedule efforts, particularly those in developing countries. In
the teaching of basic university physics, as in so many other contexts, our aim must
be to bring about immediate and striking increases in the slope of the curves plotting
the number of trained teachers, the number of well-prepared and well-motivated
students, the amounts of money available for better and more assistants, buildings,
apparatus and other teaching aids, etc. In addition to numerical increases, w e look
to,strikingincreases in quality.
H o w shall all this be achieved? W e have only three general methods at our
disposal. One is dedicated work on the level of the aided invididual, e.g., the gifted
instructor w h o is being given incentive and time to work up a good course. The
second is the level of organized activity on a large scale, e.g., through a national
or international Commission on College Physics. But both of these will inevitably
tend to develop only existing ideas and fall into well-established traps unless they
embrace the third method, on which probably everything depends: It is the ability
of some individuals and some groups to invent short circuits across existing problems
(e.g., in the U.S.A., where science teaching centres can hope to by-pass the reluctant
and tariff-protectedapparatus manufacturers who have been a roadblock to better
science teaching for decades).
Here, I think is the real challenge before each of our countries and each of us as

1. The repeated and inconclusive discussion of tests recorded in: S. C.Brown and N. Clarke,
op. cit., s h o w that this is an internationally prevalent problem.

73
Basic documents

individuals: How to free both our minds and our physical or financial circumstances,
so that we may be ingenious, bold (and, if necessary, agressive) enough to invent
short cuts by which to turn our liabilities into advantages. This is the philosopher’s
stone with which one can hope to make striking qualitative and quantitative changes
in the existing methods of teaching basic university physics to the ever-increasing
number of students which the future is putting into our hands.

14
 On the teaching ofphysics

APPENDIX A
P E R T I N E N T RESOLUTIONS OF THE 1960 I N T E R N A T I O N A L CONFERENCE
ON P H Y S I C S EDUCATION

The conference has accepted,without dissent, the following resolutions. Some of the comments
and recommendations concerning education in physics may apply to education in other
subjects, and w e are particularly aware that similar consideration might profitably be given
to the teaching of chemistry and mathematics, subjects which need to be taught effectively
if the efforts of even the best physics teachers are not to be seriously impaired. However,
since this conference has been composed exclusively of physicists, w e have limited our
comments and recommendations to the subject on which w e may claim to speak with
authority.
I. In our view, physics is an essential part of the intellectual life of m a n at the present day,
and the study of physics provides a unique interplay of logical and experimental
disciplines. The study of physics and the physicist’s methods of acquiring and
evaluating knowledge should therefore be regarded as a necessary part of the education
of all children.
II. In many countries,education in physics, both for non-specialistsand for future specialists,
is unsatisfactory. In all countries, improvement is essential at some levels of teaching.
Experiments have been initiated in some countries to try to find ways to make improve-
ments; w e welcome and encourage such experiments. They are particularly necessary
and important at the level of secondary schools or their equivalent. Experiments and
solutions will probably take different forms in different countries.
W e should like to see one or more international institutes established, among their
functions being the devising and carrying out of experiments of this kind.
W e recommend to the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics that it should
take appropriate action, possibly in collaborationwith other international organizations,
to establish an internationalcommittee of professional physicists to accept responsibility
for:
1. The collection, evaluation, and co-ordination of information and the stimulation
of experiments at all levels of physics education.
2. Suggesting ways in which the facilities for the study of physics at all levels might
be improved in various countries.
3. The collection and evaluation of information on methods used for the assessment
of standards of performance of students of physics and for the evaluation of the
qualifications and effectivenessof teachers of physics.
4. The giving of help to teachers in incorporating modern knowledge in their courses.
5. The promotion of the exchange of information and ideas among all countries by
methods that would include the holding of international conferences.
III. W e stress that efficient instruction in physics requires specialized teachers who can keep
abreast of developments in a rapidly growing subject. W e are alarmed at the Present
shortage of such teachers, particularly in view of the growing demand for physics
education. The shortage is likely to become more acute in the years ahead.
In our opinion, steps should be taken to improve both the efficiency and the
attractiveness of physics teaching as a profession. Insofar as the realization of these
aims requires action by governments and universities,w e recommend that these bodies
should consider the following general conclusions:
1. In schools of secondary and higher levels, physics should be taught by physicists,
that is. by men and women who have received a professional training in physics.
Teachers must be encouraged to keep their professional experience up to date. T e
experimental nature of physics places an added burden on the teacher. and this
must be recognized and adequately compensated by a reduction of his teaching
hours and in other suitable ways.

1. From S. C. Brown and N . Clarke (Eds.), International Education in Physics,Proceedings

Of the International Conference on Physics Education, Paris, Unesco House 18 July to
4 Agust 1960;N e w York, The Technology Press and John Wiley and Sons, do,
P-1-3.

75
Basic documents

2. T o make teaching careers more attractive, improvements of salary and status are
necessary in some cases, but most important are better conditions of work. For
example, technical assistance and liberal provision of apparatus are vital, and faci-
lities should be provided for all students at all levels to carry out experiments.
Secondary school teachers should have conditions in which they can feel that they
form an integral part of the development of physical knowledge.
3. Universities and comparable institutions should accept their responsibility to
establish close relations with secondary school teachers, to assist in solving the
problems of instruction in schools, and to provide refresher courses. These courses
would require extended periods of study leave for teachers.

APPENDIX B
DATA ON CURRENT INTRODUCTORY TYPE-A COURSES IN THE U.S.A.’

INTRODUCTORY COURSES IN PHYSICS

In those institutions offering more than one introductory course (see Table VIII), there is
usually no specific requirement that students intending to major in physics take a particdar
introductory course, although it is the normal pattern for one of the courses offered to be
designated as the one recommended for physics majors, and for that course to be the primary
avenue through which students move to the physics major programme. The data below
are based on the courses, one at each institution, which normally (or most often) serve as
the introductory course for physics majors.

TABLE
VIII. Percentage of schools offering only one introductory physics coursel

Percentage offering only

School size Number of schools reporting one introductory
physics course

200-499 13 17
500-999 70 56
1 000-1999 17 30
2 000-4999 50 18
over 5 O00 21 10
- -
TOTALS 23 1 36

1. This does not include Ph.D. degree-granting institutions.

SURVEY OF PHYSICS CURRICULA

Table IX supplies some information about these courses-duration in semesters (or the
equivalent) and course credit in semester hours (or the equivalent)-the tabulation broken
down by school size and by type of institutional support. The table lists the number of
schools in each category offeringcourses of the indicated duration and with the indicated
number of credit hours.

1. Excerpted from L. W.Phillips, ‘Some results of a survey made in preparation for the
Conference on Curricula for Undergraduate Majors in Physics’, Am. J. PhYs.. VOI. 50
(March 1962), p. 210-13.

76
TABLEIX. Number of schools versus introductory course duration and introductory
course credit
- -
Total Length of course (semesters) Credit in semester hours
number -
or
schools c2 2 3 4 <8 8 10 >lo
- -

By school sire
200-499 13 - 11 2 - 1 6 4 2
500-999 70 2 6 3 3 2 3 38 22 7
1000-1999 77 1 6 9 4 3 5 36 28 8
2 000-4999 50 -
- 39 10 1 2 11 26 11
over 5 O00 21 14 7 - - 2 15 4

By type of support
Statesupported 68 - -
Private, denominational
Private,
119 - 10755 138 4
1
3
16
57
37
46
14
13

nondenominational 44
- -3 3-4 -5 -
2 7
- - - -
20 12 5

TOTALS 231 3 196 26 6 11 93 95 32

Percentages - 1.3 85 11 2.6 5 40 41 14

From the data in Table IX and from replies to other questions not tabulated here in detail,
one gets a rough description of the ‘average’introductory physics course now offered, in
this group of institutions,to students going on into a physics major programme. The average
course carries about 4.3 semester hours of credit per semester and runs for about 2.2
semesters-a total of about 9.4 semester hours of credit. Almost always (nine exceptions
out of 231) laboratory work is an integral part of the course. In eight of the nine exceptions,
laboratory work is taken concurrently as a separate course; in only one case is the course
strictly a lecture-recitationcourse with no accompanying laboratory.
About 58 per cent of the courses are intended primarily for sophomore registration,
some 28 per cent for freshmen or sophomores,and about 16 per cent are designed specifically
for freshmen. If one considers only those institutions at which a single introductory course
is offered,the ‘freshman’to ‘freshman-sophomore’ratio is almost inverted: 55 per cent
of the courses are for sophomores,27 per cent for freshmen, and 18 per cent for freshmen or
sophomores. In general, it appears that, at somewhere in the neighbourhood of one-fourth
of the institutions, students intending to major in physics get their introductory college
physics in the freshman year.
Out of 199 schools supplying specific information about mathematics requirements,
21 (1 1 per cent) indicate the calculus (or a mathematics course which, though it may be
listed under a different title, includes some calculus) as a prerequisite to the introductory
course, and an additional 90 (45 per cent )require concurrent registration in calculus. About
10 per cent have no specific mathematics requirement, although college algebra or trigono-
metry are often listed as ‘recommended’.
The average enrolment is about 75 (ranging from 5 to 500), the median is very close to
45, with a total course enrolment of 20 or less in 33 of the schools reporting,and 10 or less
in 8 of them. Clearly, there are many in which the total enrolment is too large to be handled
as a single unit, and the class is therefore broken down into ‘sections’of manageable size.
There is little uniformity in the ways in which this breakdown is accomplished, but they
m a y be characterized as of two basic types, or combinations thereof
1. The class is divided into sections of a given size (say 25 students) and each section is
carried, almost completely isolated from all other sections in the course, through all
phases of the instructional programmelectures, class discussions, problem-solving
sessions, laboratory work, and examinations.

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2. The instructional.programme is separated into three parts-formal lectures, recitation

or discussion sessions, and laboratory work-and the students are assigned to sections
in each of these categories. with sections of the size most appropriate or most convenient
to the particular kind of instruction.For example, a course of 100studentsmay be handled
as a singleunit for formal lectures and separated into four sections of 25 each for recitation,
discussion, and problem solving, and into five sections of 20 students each for laboratory
work.
One quite common technique, a mixture of the two above, involves separation of the class
into sections of one particular size for laboratory work and into another group of sections,
usually somewhat larger in size (and sometimes the entire class), for combination lecture
and recitation-discussion periods. Sometimes certain periods are designated for formal
lectures and others for recitation-discussion;in other cases, no such distinction between
lecture and the less formal recitation-discussiontype of instruction is made.

X. Number of schools with enrolments of indicated size in courses, in recitation-

TABLE
discussion section,and in laboratory sections

Number of schools with enrolments of indicated size in:

Tola1
Enrolment course
Rec.-disc.section Rec.-disc.section
L and R D separated L and R D 1 not separated

1-10 8 2 6
11-20 25 29 33
21-30 36 26 44
3 1-40 31 12 29
41-50 26 8 12
51-60 14 6 6
61-70 11 2 -
71-80 13 - 4
8 1-90 11 - -
91-100 5 - 2
100-150 25 - 1
15 1-200 10 -
over 200 14 - -
Average size 75 27 31
Median size 45 24 27

Number of schools with indicated laboratory section enrolment

Enrolment
Sectioned Not sectioned Total

under 10 6 1 7
10-14 35 12 47
15-19 39 12 51
20-24 46 9 55
25-29 14 7 21
over 29 - 12
-26
- 38
TOTALS 152 67 219
Percentages 69 31 1 O0
Average size 19 28 22
Median size 18 24 20

1. L and R D Lecture and recitation-discussion.

__
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 On the teaching of physics

For example: at one institution, with a total course enrolment of 40, the students meet
as a unit for three ‘lectures’per week, and the class is broken into three sections for one
‘recitation-discussion’period per week and into five sections, each meeting for one three-
hour period per week, for laboratory work.At another institutionwith a total course enrolment
of 140,there is no sectioning;the class meets as a unit three times each week for a combination
of lecture and recitation-discussion,and there is no laboratory work. Of five institutions
with course enrolments of between 91 and 100, three break the class into smaller sections
for both recitation or discussion and laboratory,while two, though sectioning for laboratory,
handle the entire enrolment as a unit for the other parts of the instructional programme.
In general, about 70 per cent of the institutions break the class down into smaller sections
for laboratory work, and about 40 per cent section the class for non-laboratory work.
Enrolments and section sizes are given in Table X.
Where there is a distinction made between ‘lecture’and ‘recitation-discussion’periods,
there seems to be a general tendency toward more lecture periods and fewer recitation-
discussion periods per week, probably as a device for more economical use of staff time.
About 35 per cent of the institutions make this distinction, and in them the (lecture: reci-
tation-discussion)time ratio is as shown in Table XI.

XI. Lecture : recitation-discussiontime ratio

TABLE

Lecture :rec.-disc.time ratio Number of institutions Percentage of institutions

1 :3,1 1 :2. or 2 : 3 8 12
1:1,or2:2 9 14
3:2,or2:1 21 32
3 : 1, or 3 : O 27 42

1. Numbers recorded here are aclual numbers of periods per week.

Length of class periods, for lectures and for recitation-discussionsessions (and for the
combinations when no distinction is made) is almost universally from fifty to fifty-five
minutes. In a few institutions, laboratory sections meet twice each week (usually for about
two hours per meeting), and two institutions report laboratory sections meeting every other
week, but in over 97 per cent of the cases one laboratory meeting per week is the normal
schedule. Duration of the laboratory period varies quite widely, as indicated in Table XII.

TABLEXII. Duration of laboratory periods1

Length OF laboratory period’ (minutes) Percentage of institutions

1 O0 10
110-120 44
150-165 16
170-180 28
195-210 2

1. Includes only institutions in which labs mec1 once each week.

2. Average laboratory period is 140 min.

In 6 per cent of the institutions, students work alone in the laboratory; in 73 per cent
they work in pairs;in the remaining 21 per cent, in groups of three or four, or in a few cases,
five. In 31 per cent the laboratory r u m on an ‘even-front’scheme, all students in a section

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working on the same experiment; in 69 per cent, several experiments are in operation at
the same time-usually four or five, but in a few cases as many as ten. In almost all cases,
the students do one complete experiment at each laboratory meeting. Written reports on
all experiments performed are required at 89 per cent of the schools; the other 1 1 per cent
either require reports on only some of the experiments, or substitute examinations, oral
reports, or the keeping of a ‘research-type’laboratory notebook for formal written reports.
Of those requiring formal written reports, 53 per cent characterize them as ‘complete’,
29 per cent as ‘brief’,and 18 per cent as ‘some complete, some brief‘. The report, whatever
its magnitude, is written during the laboratory period in 34 per cent of the institutions;
outside of the laboratory period in the remaining 66 per cent.
Averaged over all schools in this group, about 80 per cent of the students registered in
the course at its beginning complete the course with a passing grade although the percentage
varies over wide limits from one institution to another. Of 189 institutions supplying infor-
mation on this point, there are ten (and these are not always, though usually,in courses with
low registration) at which one hundred per cent of the students usually complete the course
successfully. At the other end of the scale, twelve institutions expect the successfulcompletions
to amount to about 50 per cent and one expects it to be as low as 42 per cent. Table XII1
gives the number of institutions at which the percentage of students expected to complete
the course with a passing grade is as indicated in the left-handcolumn.

TABLEXIII.

Percentage of registrants Number of schools with Percentage of registrants Number OF schools with
passing the course indicated percentage passing passing the course indicated percentage passing

1 O0 10
95-99 14 6s-69 10
90-94 43 60-64 22
85-89 20 55-59 O
80-84 21 50-54 12
75-79 15 45-49 O
70-74 21 40-44 1

APPENDIX C
ON TEACHING P H Y S I C S A N D C H E M I S T R Y IN ONE C O U R S E 1

1. What areas of knowledge usually included in modern introductory physics and chemistry
can be taught more effectively in a combined course than in two separate courses 7
The study of classical Newtonian mechanics, which introduces the student to the concepts
of force, mass work, kinetic and potential energy, and a variety of conservation principles,
is basic to the entire field of physical science. This foundation enables the student to gain
a deeper insight into the kinetic theory of matter and a sounder understanding of the kinetic-
molecular model of matter. The concepts of work and mechanical energy, of the conversion
of mechanical energy into heat, of heat as a mode of motion, and of the relation between
temperature and the kinetic energy of molecules help him to interpret the changes in thermal
energy accompanying changes of state and chemical transformations. Studying the nature
of static and of flowing electricity enables him to understand more clearly the involvement
of electric energy in electrolysis and the chemical reactions taking place in galvanic cells.

1. From the Report of the Beloit Conference of 1961 on Teaching Physics and Chemistry
in a Combined Course, p. 15-17.

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 On the teaching of physics

Studying the nature of magnetic and electric fields enables him to comprehend more clearly
h o w charged particles moving in such fields behave and h o w a study of these has led to
our contemporary model of atomic structure. Knowledge of atomic structure is prerequisite
to understanding contemporary interpretations of the periodic table, the nature of chemical
bonding, and the relations between particle size and geometric configuration and the
chemical properties of atoms, molecules, and ions.

2. Are there pedagogical or philosophical values in teaching physics and chemistry in a

combined course?
There is merit in exposing students to both physics and chemistry in their first year of
college in order to enable them to make a wise choice of a major. Since several topics are
commonly taught in both physics and chemistry courses, teaching them only once in a
combined course saves time for studying other topics. One college reported that almost
half a semester in a four-semester sequence of physics and chemistry was gained in this
way. The combined course is especially valuable in the curriculum for preparing students
to become secondary school science teachers, since they are often expected to teach both
sciences. Alternation between the mathematical approach used in physics and the pheno-
menological approach used in chemistry widens the students’outlook on science and h o w
it develops. They learn something about the difference in ‘style’ between the physicist’s
and the chemist’s approaches to nature. Students planning to major in chemistry get started
in physics at an earlier stage in their education; the opposite is true for students of physics.
Students with a strong background in chemistry are able to use this in coping with the
physics in a combined course to better advantage than when physics of the same degree
of difficulty is taught as a separate course. Their chemical knowledge ‘helps them over the
humps’ in a combined course; the opposite is true for students with a strong background
in physics. Applying a given concept (e.g., kinetic-moleculartheory) to both chemistry and
physics strengthens and deepens a student’s understanding of the concept and its usefulness.
Working together in a combined course broadens the outlook of the faculty involved.
It is an exhilarating experience to teach such a course;it forces the teacher to choose among
the sacred cows of chemistry and physics. The rather drastic changes of approach engendered
by a combined introductory course require that the faculty think through and revise the
whole curriculum for the major by changes in the course offerings which follow the combined
course. Co-operationin the teaching of upper level courses is also encouraged.
Disadvantages in the combined coursehave been encountered:postponing a well-motivated
student’s deep and rapid penetration of physics or chemistry; confusing a poorly prepared
student by switching from physics to chemistry and vice versa, when care is not taken to
integrate the work; increasing the difficulty of co-ordinating a student’s work in college
with what he had in secondary school-particularly if he had ‘advanced’courses in school;
complicating problems of administering the course, since more staff members are involved
and need to be consulted when decisions are made on staffing, sectioning for lecture and
laboratory groups, scheduling examination, etc.; the lack of a wide selection of suitable
texts; the difficultyof ‘coveragel-the instructor is prone to select too much subject matter
from the wealth of material available.It was generally felt, however, that these disadvantages
are outweighed by the advantages of integration.

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Basic documents

APPENDIX D
SAMPLE SYLLABUS FOR THE O N E - Y E A R , TYPE-(B+ C) COURSE
IN PHYSICAL S C I E N C E 1

Aims and approach

This one-year course is directed to students in the liberal arts and the non-physicalsciences.
M y principal aims are the sound presentation of key concepts and theories of physical
science, and the development of intellectual tools for the student’s orientation in an age
where science has become a dominant cultural force. Physical science is therefore studied
both as a body of rigorous knowledge and as a living process of investigation.
The centre of the course lies in physics, although connexions are made to other physical
sciences whenever appropriate. Instead of adhering to the ancient but rather arbitrary
division of physics into rigid categories (e.g., mechanics, heat, etc.), I let the historical and
philosophical development of science suggest the organization and unification of the material.
Like others who have tried it, I have found that this approach has several advantages.
Occasional well-chosen references to the original work of great scientists can provide the
excitement of looking over the shoulder of the originator at his work.A careful study of the
meaning of fundamental concepts brings out that feature of science which has made it the
proverbial model for effective thinking. A n d the occasional analysis of procedures and
tools of working scientists m a y help to formulate the student’s attitude toward problem
situations in general.
However, the main strength of any science course lies in its scientific subject-matter
content,and the most important experience w e can give a student comes when he finds that
he can enjoy and solve a difficult but important problem in science, although it be on the
introductory level. This is the prerequisite to an understanding of the physical universe.
A n d if the student does not reach this stage first, attempts to teach the ‘meaning’or nature
-or structure of science can hardly succeed. Therefore, I avoid following the historical line
wherever it does not help to clarify the scientific content. In short, in this course the history
of science is necessarily thought of neither as a science nor as the subject of main concern,
but as a pedagogic aid.
Encyclopaedic coveragethe great stumbling block in elementary courses-has also been
discarded; instead of giving a general (and therefore often shallow) survey, I have elected
to spend the time on a more careful study of a number of key topics. This choice need not
imply a set of unconnected cases; they can be arranged to form a continuously developing
story from early beginnings to contemporary research, from Galileo’s law of free fall to
thermonuclear reactions.
The guiding principle in the selection of subject matter for this form of block-and-bridge
course is that each main topic should fulfil two purposes: it must be of interest and importance
in its o w n right, and it must have important links with the rest of the story. For example,
the laws of projectile motion are discussed first in connexion with Galileo’s contribution
to kinematics, but are taken up again several times later: as examples of vector addition;
as a special case of motion under Newton’s law of universal gravitation; and in connexion
with the motion of charged particles in the cathode-ray tube and the mass spectrograph.
The same selection principle gives one courage to omit many topics which usually have
been regarded as indispensable in the classic type of pre-professional physics course (e.g.,
photometry, lens aberrations).

Length and level

The course is intended to be taken in the freshman or sophomore year; it meets three hours
a week for demonstrationlectures, once a week for one and a half hour discussion in smaller
groups, and about every other week for a three-hour laboratory session. (This distribution
of time is dictated not by some inherent necessity, but by our local circumstances.)

1. Based on article by G.Holton, Am. J. Phys. vol. 25, (October 1957), p. 425-9.

82
 -
- On rhe teaching of physics

Some special features of the course are considered important:

Mathematical level. N o special mathematical prerequisite or aptitude is required of the
student. But the elements of the calculus are developed and used as the course proceeds,
and students who already know the calculus are able to use and extend this knowledge in
special sections.
Laborarory work. The laboratory is so designed that it covers material not otherwise
elaborated upon in the course;thereby each experiment is endowed with additional validity
and student interest, and more lecture time can be given to other topics.
Moreover, if the course is to serve a double purpose, the specific experiments can concen-
trate on topics which one expects a premedical student to be familiar with (e.g., geometrical
optics, electric circuits). Consequently, this course can be considered as one way of fulfilling
the premedical physics requirement for students w h o subsequently decide to apply for
admission to medical schools.
Basic topics. The Carleton Report requests that every course which attempts to provide
a satisfactory introduction to present-day physics should be constructed around and must
encompass a stated set of ‘seven basic principles and concepts and the material leading
up to them’. In addition, four more topics are given to illustrate h o w the course content
m a y be enriched if time is available for this purpose after a sound presentation of the basic
topics. These specifications are perhaps more difficult to fulfil in the type of course here
described than in other physics courses, but I agree that the same basic image of the field
of physical science can and should be presented in all courses in which physics is taught.
I regard it as axiomatic that there is only one physical universe for all of us, not one for
physicists and engineers, another for premedical students, a third for liberal arts majors,
and so on. It should be possible to meet the special needs and pedagogic problems of each
student group without sacrificing the fundamental unity of the subject.

Topicsfor lectures and discussion periods

The time allowance indicated below for each of the eight parts of the course is only
approximate. I have indicated by asterisks those topics which might be discussed in abbre-
viated form if the local situation should make it necessary to prune the content even further
to permit a lengthier treatment of the rest.
Part A. Kinematics (three weeks):
1. Speed and acceleration. (Measurement and ‘errors’; motion with constant speed;
instantaneous speed; equations of motion for constant acceleration; mathematics and
the description of nature.)
2. Galileo and the kinematics of free fall. (Qualitative vs. quantitative science; free fall;
experiment and theory.)
3. Projectile motion. (Simple trajectories; vector algebra; general projectile motion;
Galilean relativity*.)
Part B. Dynamics (two weeks):
4. Newton’s laws of motion. (First law; force; secoild law; mass and weight; third law;
M a c h experiment*.)
5. Rotational motion. (Uniform circular motion; centripetal force; absolute and relative
space*.)
Part C.The astronomy and dynamics of the planetary system (three weeks):
6. Greek astronomy*. (From Plato to Ptolemy.)
7. The Copernican theory. (Heliocentric system;what is a good theory?)
8. Kepler’s laws. (The universe as mechanism; the three laws.)
9. Galileo’s contributions to astronomy. (What is scientific evidence? Interplay between
philosophic position and scientific theory.)
10. Newton’s law of universal gravitation. (Newton’s ‘rules of reasoning’; derivation of
the law; tests.)
11. S o m e consequences of Newton’s work. (Value of G; mass of celestial bodies; shapes
of planets*; tides*; ‘I frame no hypotheses’;the effects of the great synthesis outside
physical science.)

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Basic documents

Part D.The conservation principles (four weeks):

12. Conservation of mass.
13. Conservation of momentum. (Collision; explosion*; open and closed systems; angular
momentum+.)
14. Conservation of energy in mechanics. (Work; energy; application to previous topics.)
15. Heat phenomena. (Temperature;fluid theory of heat*; specific heat capacity; change
of state.)
16. First principle of thermodynamics.(Joule’s and Mayer’s work; applications.)
17. Second principle of thermodynamics*. (Entropy; direction of heat flow; efficiency of
heat engines.)
Part E. Origins of the atomic theory (three weeks):
18. Laws of gases. (Laws of Boyle, Charles, Gay-Lussac;gas models.)
19. Atomic theory in chemistry. (Dalton*; law of multiple proportions*; atomic weights;
Avogadro’s hypothesis.)
20. The Periodic System of elements. (Valence; Mendeleeff’s work; the modern table of
elements.)
21. The kinetic theory of matter and heat. (Plausibility arguments; derivation of pressure
formula;meaning of temperature;other successes;failures of the theory.)
Part F. Theories of fields in electricity and magnetism (four weeks):
22. Origins of the concepts of field and charge. (Fluid theories*; force-distancelaw; Cou-
lomb’s experiments.)
23. Electrostatics. (Electric field strength;potential.)
24. Electric currents. (Ohm’s law* ; electrolysis; magnetic fields; current field interaction.)
25. The electron. (Cathode rays; elm measurement; measurement of e; determination of
Avogadro’s number.)
26. Electromagnetic waves. (Wave motion in general; electromagnetic waves; Hertz’s
experiments*.)
Part G.Quantum theory of light and matter (five weeks):
27. Some optical principles. (Light; Huyghens’ principle; interference; continuous spectra.)
28. Quantum theory of Planck and Einstein. (Blackbody radiation; photo-electric effect;
measurement of h ; photon-wave dilemma.)
29. Discrete spectra. (Emission; absorption ; Balmer series and others.)
30. Rutherford’satomic model. (Scattering experiments;nuclear charge and size.)
31. Bohr’s theory of the atom. (Energy levels;atomic size;emission and absorption spectra;
correspondence principle; periodic table; valence; anomalous specific heats* ; X-rays*.)
32. Matter-waves and indeterminacy. (De Broglie matter-waves; electron diffraction;
reinterpretation of electron orbits; particle-wave duality ; complementarity concept;
indeterminacyrelation’.)
Part H.Nuclear atom and nuclear energy (five weeks):
33. Radioactivity and isotopes. (Discoveries of Becquerel and the Curies; nature of alpha,
beta, and g a m m a radiation; radioactive series;half-life;isotopes; mass spectrography.)
34. Nuclear model. (The proton; artificial transmutation; neutron; induced radioactivity.)
35. Mass-energy equivalence. (Exothermic and endothermic processes; elements of special
relativity theory; conservation principle of mass-energy; pair formation and annihila-
tion* ; neutrino*.)
36. Nuclear energy. (Discovery of fission; fusion; binding energy; nuclear forces; recent
models of the nucleus*;reactors and other applications.)
37. Retrospect. (Conditionsfor the growth of science; science and the bases of our culture.)

Reading
The textbook on which the course is based (Gerald Holton, Introduction to Concepts and
Theories in Physical Science, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, 1952; or
Holton and Roller, Foundations of Modern Physical Science, Addison-Wesley Publishing
Company, Reading, 1958) contains additional material on the conceptual methods of
physical science, which m a y be assigned as independent reading for interested students.
 On the teaching of physics

It is also very instructive to make supplementary reading assignments on specific technical

topics in other introductory physics texts (e.g., Sears and Semansky). For further historical
and philosophical background material I have found selections from the following references
of particular interest and use to students: Herbert Butteríïeld’s Origins of Modern Science,
E. A. Burtt’s Metaphysical Foiindations of Modern Science, J. H. Randall’s The Making
of the Modern Mind, Lewis Mumford’s Technics and Civilization, P. W.Bridgman’s Logic
of Modern Physics, and Philipp Frank’s Einstein.

Laboratory experiments
The Carleton Report recognized that ‘physics, as a body of knowledge, is now far too
extensive to receive adequate general coverage in an introductory course’. Space for the
programme outlined above has been won by giving little or no attention in lecture or dis-
cussion to a number of traditional topics (and favourite,hard-won lecture demonstrations)-
for example, hydrostatics, thermal expansion, musical sound, lenses and mirrors, magne-
tostatics, alternating currents, vacuum tubes. For some students, high-school courses in
physics wiIl have covered this material. But whether or not such a background can be
assumed, the laboratory experience can well concentrate on some of these topics.The follow-
ing fourteen experiments in this physical science course correspond to experiments usually
found in the repertory of the traditional type of college physics course. In the laboratory
manual we have developed, the theory of each topic is presented in a fairly self-contained
manner: motion with constant acceleration: free fall-Newton’s laws: reaction-car experi-
ment-the laws of statics: the crane-rotational motion: centripetal force-conservation
of momentum and of energy: ballistic pendulum-the mechanical equivalence of heat-
vibration of strings and air columns:wave propagation-electric currents: the potenti0me.te.r-
the cathode-ray oscilloscope-alternating current circuits-electronics: the triodelenses
and optical instruments-spectroscopy-radioactivity: half-life of thoron, statistics of
counting.

85
 IV. A DYNAMIC APPROACH TO UNIVERSITY
CHEMISTRY TEACHING

M. Brenner
Professor, Institut für Organische Chemie,
University of Basle, Switzerland

INTRODUCTION

The classical curriculum in chemical teaching comprises rather voluminous intro-

ductory courses in inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry.
Parallel to these courses, laboratory work is done. In inorganic chemistry it concen-
trates around qualitative and quantitative analysis, mainly following classical
schemes. Inorganic preparations are rather neglected. In organic chemistry much
time is devoted to organic syntheses. This synthetic programme is sometimes
supplemented by exercises in qualitative organic analysis. Experiments in physical
chemistry are usually done in a separate institute and often do not bear any
relation to the students’ particular work in inorganic and organic chemistry.
As a rule, the chemical teaching is supplemented by elementary physics and mathe-
matics.
Advanced students complete their knowledge by attending special courses which
treat special subjects such as quantitative inorganic analysis, inorganic co-ordination
complexes, nature of the chemical bond, stereochemistry, mechanisms of organic
reactions, chemistry of natural products, chemistry of colouring matters, chemical
technology of inorganic and organic compounds. The time devoted to such
supplementary cowses is in most universities comparatively small. The advanced
student works mainly in the laboratory in order to get a Ph.D. degree; he has to
submit a thesis containing results of research done by himself.
The time required for studies in chemistry varies greatly. The minimum is from
five to six years, the average m a y be seven years. A duration of eight or even nine
years is not as rare as one might expect. The duration of his studies is in part con-
trolled by the student. Properly chosen examinations can therefore be a great help
to him. The lower limit, however, is set by the amount of knowledge which he is
supposed to absorb during his studies, and by the way in which that knowledge
is presented to him. A comparison between different universities reveals that teaching
systems and required knowledge vary greatly.
The point which counts, however, is not the teaching system. It is instead the
yield of the teaching. Today’s problem is not so much how to produce good chemists,
but how to produce good chemists in a reasonable time. In view of the ever-increasing
rate of the development of chemistry, an appropriate choice of teaching subjects
becomes all-important. No teaching system can follow the steady accumulation

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 A dynamic approach to chemistry teaching

of facts. However, from accumulating facts new principles may emerge, and they
do emerge. Teaching must concentrate on such principles.
This means that historical barriers between subjects will gradually disappear.
The classical subdivision of chemistry into inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry
becomes obsolete. While most university teachers are aware of this fact, old tradi-
tions very often prevent a reorganuatioh. In European universities, this constitutes
a very serious problem. Young countries thus have an advantage. Every effort
must be made to treat chemistry as one subject presenting different aspects and
every effort must be made to offer to the student frequent comparisons among these
different aspects.

A CURRICULUM IN CHEMISTRY

What is chemistry and what is a chemist ?

It is profitable to ponder on that question before setting up a programme
of chemistry teaching. Chemistry belongs to the realm o € natural sciences.
Nevertheless, it is in many ways more an art than a science. T o a large extent,
chemistry is based on empirical rules. Progress is even nowadays more due to
accidental discovery than to logical reasoning. Trial and error play a great role
in every chemical achievement. It is true that modern theories on the nature of
chemical bonds and on reaction mechanisms are a great help for the design of
experiments. This help should not, however, be over-emphasized.There are pitfalls
in many cases, because our understanding of chemical events is not good enough.
Often the chemist cannot really rely on the theoretical predictions. The very great
merit of m o d e m theoretical concepts is seen elsewhere. It is especially seen in the
fact that these concepts enable a rational classification of experimental chemical
knowledge. The importance of this other side of the picture of theory cannot be
overemphasized, neither in practice nor in teaching.
Strangely enough, another aspect of chemical theory, i.e. physical chemistry,
is-especially by the organic chemist in continental Europe-very much neglected.
This subject may be less glamorous than the electronic theory of organic chemistry.
However, physical chemistry offers laws instead of speculations. Every chemical
experiment is subject to these laws. The chemist can expect immediate profit if he
is willing to eliminate from his work that part of empiricism which can be eliminated
by thoroughly applying physico-chemical knowledge. Modern development of
analytical methods offers a convincing example of the vast possibilities which physical
chemistry offers to the practical chemist. It cannot replace trial-and-errorexperiments
but it can reduce their number.
A further reduction of the number of necessary experiments is rendered possible
if the chemist becomes acquainted with a new branch of statistics which has to do
with the design and analysis of experiments.
So it becomes apparent that chemistry, while still being essentially an empirical
art, is much aided by a certain knowledge in physics and mathematics. Indeed,
chemistry may be regarded as applied physics, or at least there is no doubt that
physics constitutes one root from which chemistry is growing. However, as a rule,
physics only explains facts which have been first empirically observed. It rarely
helps to discover new chemistry. Maybe it could do so, but usually the chemist’s
mind is not comprehensive enough. H e must rely mainly on imagination or on
his good luck. This is a serious handicap. The modern chemist’s situation would
indeed be rather awkward, were it not for the fact that he had at hand a most expe-
rienced teacher-life. The chemical achievements of life compensate for all the lack

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Basic documents

of comprehension and imagination in the chemist’s mind. H e must just be willing

to learn from them. Thus life constitutes the second root from which modern
chemistry develops. Classical chemical teaching recognized the importance of
supplementary courses in physics and mathematics. Modern chemical teaching
must recognize the importance of supplementary courses in biochemistry and biology.
Now, what is a chemist? What sort of a student is willing to devote his life to
chemistry, which extends on one hand from physics to preparative or analytical
laboratory work and further to chemical engineering and large-scale industrial
production and, on the other hand, from biology to biochemistry and further to
medicine and agriculture? A student of chemistry must have a keen and continuous
interest in natural sciences, he must be willing to study physical chemistry, physics
and even mathematics, and at the same time he must be willing to admit that his
o w n science, chemistry, is to a large extent empirical. In a way there must evidently
be two souls in a chemist’s breast.This quality is not frequently found among students.
There are many chemists, but comparatively few good ones. We all know the type
of person w h o denies the role of empiricism, and we all know his counterpart who
does not accept anything but empiricism. Both of them are wrong and neither one
should have started his studies in chemistry. They probably did start their studies
because they did not know and were not told in time what chemistry really meant.
Sometimes the view is held that the student of biochemistry is more entitled to pure
empiricism than his colleague of organic or inorganic chemistry. This is completely
wrong. Good modern biochemistry is impossible without very good modern chemistry
and all its auxiliary disciplines. A good chemist must at the same time be very
critical and very imaginative. H e must be able to apply logic where logic can be
applied. H e must be willing to apply trial and error when trial and error must be
applied. H e must be prepared to subject his ideas to most severe experimental tests.
H e must have the imagination to devise such tests and he must have the manual
ability to do the respective experiments. Finally he must never tire of repeating
such experiments as long as repetitions are seen to be necessary, Students of this
kind can only be selected by trial and error. At the very beginning of their studies,
one must give them a chance to find out what chemistry means and whether they
like or dislike it. The best means to achieve this end is an introductory course.

Introductory course: basic general chemistry

In this title the emphasis is on the word ‘general’.The course includes lectures as
well as laboratory work.
Obviously, the beginning of such a course must demonstrate everyday life in the
chemical laboratory. The student must become acquainted with simple laboratory
equipment, with chemical language, and with the chemicals on the shelf. Such
acquaintance is best made by using the equipment and experimenting on the proper-
ties of the materials at hand. Excellent texts for this purpose are available. Pertinent
topics are: general laboratory manipulations, states of matter, atomic and molecular
weights, atoms and molecules, electronic charge and radiochemistry, stoichiometry
(gravimetric and volumetric), thermochemistry, preparations and syntheses (some
inorganic and some organic preparations, fermentation and isolation of ethyl
alcohol), kinetics, chemical equilibrium, solutions, electrochemistry, qualitative
analysis, viscosity, absorption, diffusion,osmosis, catalysis, photochemistry, colloid
chemistry. Each experiment must be accompanied by theoretical considerations.
In such a way applied theory is introduced as a part of the experiments. The student
thus learns physical chemistry and physics as a by-product. This is a very important
point. The student’s interests in physical chemistry and physics must originate from

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his o w n laboratory work. Only then will he be prepared to accept and to appreciate
the more abstract treatment of advanced physical chemistry.
Of course, the process of acquiring theory in such a way takes time. But there
is plenty of time. It is only necessary that the student be given physical chemistry
in small rations-from the very beginning to the very end of his studies. If it is
offered to him as a daily theoretical supplement to his laboratory and seminar work,
he will have the opportunity to digest it, and without any effort physical chemistry
will for him become an integral part of chemistry. Today’s practice is, at least in
continental Europe, very different. Physical chemistry is taught within a compara-
tively short period as an isolated subject. The result is not very satisfactory: to many
students physical chemistry becomes a nuisance. The young universities must and
can avoid this state of affairs.
Laboratory work in general chemistry must be supplemented by lectures in
general chemistry. Starting from the laboratory experience, the lecturer will broaden
the student’s views, both with respect to facts and theory. Available texts on general
chemistry give very good hints to the possible scope of such lectures. They often
include a wealth of pertinent questions which may form the basis of frequent and
severe examinations. A preparatory course must be tough, because the chemist’s
profession is a tough profession. The student must find out whether his mental
attitude toward chemistry is correct, he must feed his mind with chemical reasoning
and he must find out whether he likes or dislikes it. Examinations are considered
to be helpful in this process.
It seems advisable to incorporate into the preparatory course lectures on physics
and mathematics. Physics is necessary as a supplement to physical chemistry and
also in view of the ever-increasing role of instrumentation. For obvious reasons,
lectures in mathematics should include differential and integral calculus, vector
analysis, some matrix algebra, and some statistics.
The time devoted to this preparatory course may be limited to one year. Students
who are definitely not interested in chemistry will have found out by then. It is quite
clear that a course of this type demands professors and instructors of high quality
and in sufficient number. It should be realized that competent elementary teaching
of a broad subject is much more difficult than advanced teaching of a strictly limited
subject! At this stage in the educational programme the teacher must not only inform
the student: above all, he must form future chemists.

Intermediate undergraduate courses

After the preparatory course, about two years should be devoted to descriptive
chemistry and related laboratory work. However, a certain theoretical background
must be kept in sight. This will be much easier if parallel lectures are given on the
nature of the chemical bond and on stereochemistry. Titles for other lectures might
read:
Descriptive inorganic chemistry, and some theoretical background.
Descriptive organic chemistry, and some theoretical background.
Qualitative analytical chemistry (inorganic and organic).
Quantitative analytical chemistry (inorganic and organic).
Supplementary subjects are: introduction to crystallography; general biology;
exercises in foreign languages (English, German, French, and Russian).
Laboratory work during these two years should comprise: inorganic and organic
preparations, inorganic and organic analysis.
The experiments may be selected in such a way as to offer continuous opportunity
for physico-chemical considerations. Pertinent examples are distillation, crystalli-

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zation, precipitation, extraction, adsorption, countercurrent procedures, chemistry

of solutions,electro-chemistry,chemical equilibrium, reaction rates. This programme
offers also an opportunity to demonstrate the use of instrumentation and-especially
in chemical analysis-the application of statistics.
The general purpose of such an undergraduate course is seen in the accumulation
of a certain knowledge of descriptive chemistry and in the development of an
understanding of the importance of theory. It may also prepare students for the
following studies, again in the field of general chemistry.

A concluding undergraduate year

Main topics are: advanced general chemistry ; introduction to biochemistry ; advanced
laboratory work.
The student is now prepared to appreciate advanced lectures on thermodynamics,
reaction rate, kinetic analysis, reaction mechanisms, general aspects of molecular
interactions, chemistry of co-ordination complexes, chemistry of macro-molecules,
spectroscopy, radiation chemistry.
Laboratory work may be devoted to advanced studies in any desired direction.
It will, however, be profitable to include experiments on polymerization and poly-
condensation, and experiments in biochemistry.
It seems appropriate here to make a general remark on the type of laboratory
work conducted by the students: there are, for example,schools for organic chemistry
where the student is supposed to make some thirty to forty organic preparations.
Some teachers want him to do as many type reactions as possible. This tendency
seems somewhat strange. The student, no matter how long he works, will never
acquire a complete knowledge of type reactions,There is no reason why he should
study more than a few of them. The art of experimentation remains the same. So
does the general chemical reasoning. It is therefore much more profitable to study
very few reactions very thoroughly than many of them in a superficial manner.
Once a student has got the spirit of chemical experimentation, he will be able to
perform any experiment whatsoever, regardless of whether or not any particular
experiment had been demonstrated in school. Experiments should rather elucidate
the application of physico-chemicalprinciples than merely illustratereaction formulae.
The purpose of this final course is to give the student the finish necessary to
embark upon graduate work in a specialized field. Consequently examinations must
show whether he has reached the necessary degree of maturity. If it is found that
a student should preferably not continue his studies beyond this stage, he should
nevertheless obtain some sort of a degree. That degree will show that he was able
to study chemistry for four years and that he can be useful in many positions in
research or industry.
The examinations may or may not comprise practical work. Usually a student
is so well known to his instructors that too much emphasis on practical examinations
does not seem to be warranted. It is important, however, that the student has
learned to express himself clearly. Therefore a concise description of some experiments
might well form part of the examination.

Graduate studies

The student now specializes in some field of inorganic, organic or physical chemistry,
biochemistry or chemical engineering. The choice will not only depend on his abilities,
but also on available teachers and on the possibilities of a future practical application
of his knowledge. It will be an important function of his professor to give the

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necessary directions with respect to lectures and seminars to be attended by the

graduate student. T w o or three years should be sufficient time to complete a thesis.
The final examination can well be restricted to the field in which he was particularly
engaged.
It goes without saying that the undergraduate programme will certainly have
left gaps that can be closed during the time of graduate studies. This last period
of the studies is therefore again very important to the student. H e is n o w sufficiently
advanced and sufficiently formed to be given plenty of freedom. Lectures can largely
be replaced by seminars.
The student n o w must also learn how to talk and how to write a chemical paper.
Cultivation of his language is thought to be of utmost importance. The ability of
expressing thoughts is ‘justas important as chemical knowledge and experimental
skill.

REMARKS ON LABORATORY EQUIPMENT

A student of chemistry spends the larger part of his time in the laboratory. Adequate
equipment is very important. The usual glassware is furnished by well-known
companies. O n request catalogues are distributed. These contain all necessary
information. Regarding instrumentation one may differentiate between necessary
and desirable apparatus.
Necessary apparatus: pH-meter, spectrophotometers (infra-red, visible, ultra-
violet), polarimeter, refractometer, apparatus for melting-point determination,
polarizationmicroscope, gas-chromatograph, fraction collectors for chromato-
graphic work, apparatus for liquid extraction, equipment for thin-layer chromato-
graphy and electrophoresis, centrifuges, balances, high vacuum pumps, constant
temperature baths, apparatus for electrical conductivity measurement, machinery
for shaking and stirring, iceboxes and a cold-room,equipment for organic micro-
analysis, constant temperature room.
Desirable apparatus: Equipment to handle radioactive material, mass-spectrometer,
nuclear magnetic resonance, X-ray, polarimeter for rotatory dispersion measure-
ments, electron microscope.
Special equipment for classroom demonstrations seems less important. Classroom
demonstrations can never replace personal laboratory experiments. In chemistry
lectures to students of chemistry it can therefore be dispensed with. The few really
indispensable experiments may equally well be conducted and demonstrated in the
laboratory.

REMARKS ON TEACHING AIDS

The m o d e m teacher of chemistry is increasingly discovering the usefulness to his

work of the important aids to instruction such as concept films (of very brief dura-
tion), of three-dimensional models of molecules and atoms, and even of programmed
instruction when this is designed carefully to save him classroom time with routine
areas of the subject, such as equation-balancingrules, nomenclature, etc.
In the study of atomic structure, graphical representations can be of a very great
help.
Examples are: ‘The Electron Chart’ by Jack W. Eichinger, Jr., published by
Charts, Rt. 4, Box 412, Tallahassee, Florida, U.S.A.;or the ‘Electron Locator’
by N. D. Weis and J. S. Meek, which helps to find electron distribution in the
elements. The ‘ElectronLocator’ is distributed by Verlag Chemie G m b H , Weinheid
Bergstrasse, Germany.

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Stereochemical studies are very much aided by atomic models. There are two
types available: one type is the space filling model and the other one the so-called
stereo model. The first reveals interference between neighbouring atoms. The other
allows for studies of bond angles, bond lengths and all sorts of geometrical isomerism.
An example of the first type is ‘The Courtauld Atomic Models’ (Griffin and Tatlock,
Kemble Street, Kingsway, London WC2), an example of the second type is ‘Dreiding
Stereo Models’ (W. Biichi, Glasapparatefabrik, Flawil, Switzerland).
The situation with regard to teaching aids is more favourable in the case of
laboratory instruction. All general laboratory manipulations, such as recrystalliza-
tion, distillation, filtration, glassblowing, etc., must be demonstrated by instructors.
Such personal instruction could easily be replaced by films, accompanied by written
or recorded instructions. Such films do not yet exist, but they could be easily produced
and would help to: 1 (a) achieve a wide distribution of competent laboratory techni-
que, and (b) replace a great number of instructors.
At places without equipped laboratories, motion-pictures could even replace
practical chemistry teaching. This would not be an ideal solution, but it could
considerably speed up the spread of chemistry teaching.

PROBLEMS OF PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHEMISTRY

In fully developed countries chemists go into teaching, research, or production.

Young countries first of all need teachers. Not every student, however, can become
a teacher. Those who are not needed for teaching will have to start production.
At this early stage very few will find themselves in a position to do pure research
work.
For obvious reasons, production should be based as much as possible on local
resources. It will find much stimulation, if it tries to answer local demands.
Of course, local resources differ widely from country to country. Generally
speaking, one might visualize products from mining, wood, agriculture and fishing,
and a conceivable power source would seem to be hydroelectricity. Possible products
are minerals-including fertilizers, fuel and petrochemicals, processed food, fermen-
tation products from straw and starch. Under favourable conditions some simple
pharmaceuticals might also be produced.
As a conclusion it would seem appropriate for universities to offer the possibility
of advanced studies in technology of heavy chemicals, of fermentation and of food.
Stimulated by problems of production there will automatically arise a need for
applied research. In a process of evolution this will sooner or later end up in pure
research and thus create the basis for new industrial development.
The process is, however, a slow one. Its speed depends very much on the personal
and technical qualities of the teachers who start to build up a school of chemistry.

1. I have since learned that a motion-pictureof this type is available: The Geschäftsstelle
der Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (Frankfurt a.M. Karkasse 21) offers the ‘Farb
tonfilm ’on ‘Laboratoriumstechnik der organischenChemie ’by Professor Dr.L.F.Fieser,
-
Harvard University, Cambridge, U.S.A.Probably an English version is also available.

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 V. GEOLOGY TEACHING AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL]

G.P. Gorshkov
Professor of Geology at the State University,
Moscow, U.S.S.R.

The development of society and its productive forces calls for the development of
mining, and mining production and the exploitation of mineral deposits in turn
require a knowledge of geology. Hence the development of geology as a science,
and the training of the necessary staff of specialists, are closely related to the level
of the productive forces and needs of a given society or country.
The first mining schools in Russia were opened at the beginning of the eighteenth
century, and by the end of that century the mining industry had developed to such
an extent that institutions had to be set up to train mining specialists-i.e. to organize
specialized training in mining work. I believe I a m right in saying that the first
advanced school of mining technology in Europe was the High School for Mines
set up at Ostrava (in present-day Czechoslovakia) in 1716. Somewhat later-in
1766-a Mining Academy was opened at Freiburg, in Saxony. In Russia, the High
School for Mines was opened in St. Petersburg in 1773, and is now known as the
Leningrad Mining Institute. Other mining schools were opened subsequently-in
Ekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk), Tomsk and Novoeherkassk. This is one
avenue for advanced training in mining and geology which future mining engineers
may follow.
Another avenue is by way of the universities, where the emphasis is on broad
training in natural history. By the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the
twentieth, a number of universities (Moscow, Kazan, Kiev, Kharkov, Rostov,
Saratov and others) had established faculties or departments which provided training
for future specialists in geology rather than in mining.
Prior to 1917,Russian higher educational establishmentstrained very few specialists
in geology or mining engineering. One result of the October 1917 revolution was
the radical reorganization of public and higher education. In the first place, the
number of higher educational establishments was increased. Whereas, in the academic
year 1914/15 there were 105 higher educational establishments in Russia with
127,000 students, in 1962 there were no fewer than 725, with 2,396,000 students, or
19 times as many (1961/62).
Thus, at present there are about 400,000 scientificworkers in the U.S.S.R., and
about 135,000 of them hold academic diplomas or degrees. The number of post-
graduate students in geology and mineralogy is about 1,300.

1. Based ondata relating to higher educational establishments in the U.S.S.R.

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In respect of geological education specifically, the far-reaching changes also,

since 1917, have been apparent: there has been a steep increase in the number and
improvement in the quality of educational establishments offering courses. The
following three distinct avenues for specialist training have emerged (a) the geological
faculties of the universities, whose main function is to provide a thorough course
of training for geologists, giving them a sound knowledge of natural history, physics
and mathematics so that they will be capable of undertaking both practical and
theoretical work in geology, geo-chemistryand geophysics; (b) geological prospecting
institutes, which train specialists capable of carrying out geological surveys and
investigations and prospecting for mineral deposits; (c) specialized institutes of
mining technology (dealing with the mining industry, oil industry etc.), which train
specialists qualified to undertake prospecting and to exploit mineral deposits,
including the complete cycle of underground operations.
In all, specialized training in geology is provided at twenty-two universities,
nineteen institutes specializing in geological prospecting, mining and oil extraction,
and eighteen polytechnical institutes. In addition, there are about forty fechnicums
which offer training in geological prospecting for middle-level specialists (collectors,
mining technicians etc.).
In 1960/61 there were 5 1,5000 students attending higher educational establishments
providing training in the fields in question.
A total of some 100,000geologists, who have had a higher or secondary education,
are n o w working in the U.S.S.R.They are mainly concentrated in the regional
geological administrations of the U.S.S.R. Ministry of Geological Survey and
Mineral Wealth, at research institutions and production plants of other ministries,
in pits and mines, and at scientific establishments, academies of sciences and higher
educational establishments.
Below, by way of illustration, the curriculum is given of the Faculty of Geology
of the Moscow State University for the course on ‘Geologicalsurveying and prospect-
ing for mineral deposits’, with particulars of the structure of the faculty.
The course is a five-and-a-halfyears one, with two semesters a year, autumn
and spring, and examination sessions at the end of each semester. Four (or five)
examinations must be taken at each session, and the same number of tests. In the
summer, apart from a two-month vacation, the students do practical field work
and take part in expeditions.
The following list shows the subjects covered by the curriculum, with a breakdown
for each year:
First year (thirty weeks): general geology, 126 hours; higher mathematics, 120; general
chemistry, 144;physics (Part I), 72;geodesy, 78; zoology, 60.The first year’s lectures
are followed by practical work in geology (four weeks) and geodesy (four weeks).
Second year (thirty weeks): physics (Part II), 90 hours; botany, 54; crystallography,
72;physical and colloid chemistry, 120;palaeontology, 162; historical geology, 120.
After completing the second year, the students take part in expeditions.
Third year (twenty-seven weeks): mineralogy, 151 hours; petrography (Part I), 168;
geological cartography, 140; geological prospecting, 108; geomorphology, 66;
palaeozoology, 70; geophysics, 80; industrial safety measures, 22. After completing
the third year, students engage in production practice as trainees in geological
surveying (eight weeks), drilling practice (two weeks), and specialized practical
work according to the various subjects (two weeks).
Fourth year (twenty-eight weeks): petrography(Part II), 80 hours; petrography of
sedimentary rocks, 112; geology of the U.S.S.R., 140; charting of magmatic and

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 Geolom teaching at university level

metamorphic rocks, 64; geology of quaternary deposits, 60; hydrogeology, 60;

interpretation of geophysical data, 64; minerals (Part I), 60; methods of stoping,
96.O n completion of the fourth year, the students engage in thirteen weeks production
practice (expeditions).
Fifthyear (twenty-six weeks): minerals (Part II), 156 hours; mineral prospecting, 60;
geochemistry, 56; engineering geology, 56; geotectonics, 72; organization and
planning of production, 24; history of science, 48; methods of stoping, 156. O n
completion of the fifth year, the students do eighteen weeks of pre-diploma practical
work (on expeditions).
Sixth year (twenty-one weeks): preparation and defence of diploma thesis (report
on the pre-diploma practical work); state examination.
In addition to the subjects listed above, the students study a foreign language-
English, French, German or Spanish (first to fourth years); social and political
subjects-history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, political economy
and philosophy (first to fifth years); and attend classes in physical training (first
and second years). In the fourth and fifth years there are a number of elective courses
(320 periods), including structural petrology, vulcanology, tectonics of the quater-
nary period and seismotectonics, dynamic palaeography, practical palaeontology,
study of facies, marine geology, glaciology and terrestrial physics. There are also
optional courses in such subjects as motor mechanics, photography and cinemato-
graphy, principles of scientific atheism and methods of occupationally useful sports.
In the five-and-a-halfyears of their course, geology students attend lectures for
a total of 2,369 periods, do practical work in laboratories and workrooms for a
total of 2,536 periods, and attend seminars for a total of 285 periods. They spend
20 weeks in practical work in the field, take part in working expeditions lasting
31 weeks, and take 43 examinations, defend three course-papers and write their
diploma thesis (covering 21 weeks). The course of instruction culminates in the defence
of the thesis and the State examination.
The subjects covered in the curriculum for the special second course given by the
Moscow State University’s Geology Faculty on ‘Geologicalsurveying and prospect-
ing for mineral deposits’ may be classed in several groups as follows:
General education-mathematics, physics, chemistry and the study of a foreign
language.
The study of the physical composition of the earth-crystallography, mineralogy,
petrography, lithology and geochemistry.
Biology and stratigraphy-zoology, botany, palaeontology, palaeozoology, historical
geology and regional geology (geology of the U.S.S.R.).
Dynamic geology-general geology, geomorphology, geology of quaternary deposits,
engineering geology, hydrogeology, geological cartography and geotectonics.
The study of mineral resources-geology of mineral deposits, mineral prospecting
and geophysical prospecting methods.
Subjects i n the socio-political group-philosophy, political economy and history
of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
A curriculum of this kind, which covers different branches of science and provides
a broad and thorough general education in the natural sciences, enables the future
specialist to deal familiarly with special methods and have sufficient confidence to
tackle the complicated problems met with in geological research. A n d this, in our
opinion, is the main purpose of a university education.
The teaching work is organized by the teaching section of the geology faculty
administration, and is carried out by the various departments.

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The faculty has thirteen departments as follows:

1. Geology section: department of dynamic geology; department of historical and
regional geology; department of the geology and geochemistry of mineral fuels;
department of palaeontology; department of the geology and prospecting of
mineral deposits.
2. Geochemistry section: department of crystallography and crystallochemistry;
department of mineralogy; department of petrography; department of geoche-
mistry.
3. Engineering geology section: department of hydrogeology ;department of engineer-
ing geology and soil science;department of cryopedology.
4. Geophysics section: department of geophysical methods of research on the earth’s
crust.
Each department is provided with a number of workrooms and laboratories, with
the necessary equipment and teaching aids.
A n important point to be noted is that the higher educational establishments
try to relate the students’ classroom work as closely as possible to research work.
This is done in two ways-the students take part in the research work done by the
department, including expeditions, and also in the work of the students’ scientific
societies. The Moscow State University’s Geology Faculty, for example, sends
scores of expeditions to all parts of the country every year and most of the senior
students serve on them as collectors and prepare terminal papers and diploma
theses on the field data collected, this giving them their first experience of independent
scientific production work.
The student will thus have acquired, by the end of his course, a certain stock
of theoretical knowledge in the field of geology, familiarity with specialized research
methods, and some experience of independent practical work under field and
laboratory conditions.
The Moscow State University’s Geology Faculty trains specialists in: geological
surveying and prospecting for mineral deposits ; palaeontology ; geology and pro-
specting for non-metallicminerals; geology and geochemistry of oil and gas deposits;
geology and geochemistry of coal deposits; crystallography and crystallochemistry;
mineralogy; petrography ; geochemistry ; hydrogeology ; engineering geology; soil
science; cryopedology ; gravimetric and magnetic prospecting; seismological
prospecting; electrometric prospecting.
Experience shows that the graduates in geology, like the graduates of other
geological higher educational establishments, are adequately equipped to undertake
independent work in geology.
The vast African continent is remarkable for the variety and complexity of its
geological structure and the wealth of its mineral deposits. The emergence of a
large number of sovereign States in Africa in recent years will obviously make it
necessary in the near future to expand geological services, especially by training
qualified national staff. It will be most gratifying to us if our experience of geological
education at universities is of use, even in a small degree, to universities in the
African countries.
W e should like to stress, however, that African geologists have carried out a
great deal of most interesting research, and w e should find it most interesting and
instructive to learn more about what they have done and about the methods adopted
at geological institutes and universities in African countries.

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 VI. TEACHING OF BIOLOGY AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL
IN AFRICA1

J. Miège
Professor, Dakar University, Senegal

INTRODUCTION

The recent conquests of science have thrown into relief the importance of scientific
and technical studies and, in so doing, have focused attention on education as a
worth-while investment. While the imagination is struck by the huge advances
made in the mathematical, physical and chemical sciences, advances perhaps less
spectacular, but no less remarkable have been made in the sphere of biology. It
may be that these are exerting an even more pervasive, though subtler, influence
on our daily life and will help in the solution of major problems such as that of
malnutrition, so grave in many parts of the world.
The natural sciences are changing and their scope is constantly widening. In
highly organized countries as well as in underdeveloped areas, governments are
having more and more to enlist the help of biologists and technicians in occupations
related to biology. This applies particularly to the new nations of Africa whose
economy is based on agriculture, fishing, stock-farming and forestry. They will
therefore have to agree-mainly in the rural sectors-to substantial investments
in education.
But the biological sciences are conditioned by the local situation, by the charac-
teristics of the country where studies take place-differing in this respect from the
so-called exact sciences, which are not dependent (or far less so) upon geographical
circumstance. Rules and techniques have to be adapted to the flora, the fauna, and
the vegetation. This points up, it it were necessary to do so, the fundamental respon-
sibility devolving upon African university institutions engaged in the study of the
environment.
In this connexion, I should like to quote the words of Djibril Sene, agricultural
engineer, which, though they apply to agricultural research, could well be extended
to biological research in general: ‘ W e should not lose sight of the fact that agricul-
tural research must be conducted in the place where the results are to be applied.

1. It was difficult, in the time allowed for the preparation of this report and having regard
to our other obligations, to assemble full information on the teaching of the biological
sciences at university level in Africa. For this reason, the report is based mainly on our
o w n experience and on the teaching provided in the French-speakingUniversity Centres
of Africa and Madagascar. These centres are organized on lines similar to those of
French universities.

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Accordingly, research workers whose efforts are intended to benefit tropical countries
must be on the spot so as to gain a clearer insight into the resources afforded and
the difficulties presented by the environment.Expert missions are, of course, valuable
in providing opportunities for a profitable interchange of views, for a renewal of
ideas, but w e must not suppose that with one wave of a magic wand they will produce
the solution for every problem, since all that the members of missions have time
to do is to draw conclusions from the ideas put forward in the course of their
tour.’
Teaching at university level will be provided in the light of: (a) The vast need
of the African States for secondary school teachers and for research workers-
agrostologists, foresters, physiologists, geneticists, oceanographers, etc. .. .1 (b) The
value of teaching the corresponding subjects, if not wholly at least partly, on the
spot, relating them to the physical and human environment.
The objectives sought are therefore of four kinds:
1. Training of secondary school teachers-courses leading to the degree qualifying
for teaching.
2. Training of research workers to explore the problems of basic research--courses
leading to the degree qualifying for research work and to postgraduate diplomas.
3. Training of specialists in various subjects-courses leading to the third cycle
certificates and doctorates.
4. Training of technicians-courses leading to the recently created diplômes d’&des
supérieures techniques (diplomas of higher technical studies) or (of older standing)
to the doctorate of engineering.
In what follows w e shall include under the term biological sciences subjects often
considered as belonging to the natural sciences.

ACCESS TO THE UNIVERSITY

The majority of students come from secondary schools and, to accede to higher
education, they must have the baccalaurdat certificate. However, exemptions are
granted to candidates possessing certain other diplomas or certificates. These are
usually former students of the French grandes écoles (State higher professional
colleges), among which mention may be made, in relation to biology, of the Écoles
supérieures d’agronomie (Higher Agricultural Colleges) (former Institut national
agronomique, Ëcoles nationales d’agriculture, Instituts agricoles of Nancy and Tou-
louse), the École nationale d’horticulture (National Horticultural College), etc.
Some foreign certificates are also accepted as equivalents.
In addition, with the object of broadening access to higher studies and, as it were,
democratizing university education by making it available to deserving students
who have not been able to follow the normal course of secondary education, a
special university entrance examination has lately been instituted. This measure
will help in providing a larger number of trained personnel, of w h o m the country
stands in need. By way of illustration,it may be noted that,in 1961, out of 413 can-
didates sitting, in France, the special entrance examination for the faculties of

1. By way of example, w e give below the recruitment requirements of the Republic of

Senegal for the next four years, according to documents prepared by an IL0 expert
and which were kindly communica?ed to us.
Agricu!ture: 10 rural works engineers; 2 waterways and forestry engineers;20 agricultural
engineers; 20 agricultural technicians; 7 oceanographers; 20 veterinary surgeons;
10 animal husbandry research workers; 15 animal husbandry technicians; 2 specialists
in the study of soils; 3 agrostologists; 15 other specialists.
Education: 20 university and secondary school teachers.

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 Teaching of bioloay at university level

sciences, 237 passed, the proportion of successful candidates being thus over 57 per
cent. The average age was from 28 to 30 years.
But efforts to bring in the best elements have not been confined to the above
action. Arrangements are also being made for a second type of university entrance
examination, under the ‘social advancement’ scheme, for the benefit of persons
of 24 years of age and over with two years’ experience in their occupation. Africans,
w h o often have an inborn aptitude for the natural sciences, will be enabled, by
means of these new facilities, to develop their talents and give their country the
benefit of their experience.

ACADEMIC LEVEL AND BENT OF STUDENTS ON ENTRANCE

It is well to have information not only on the diplomas held by the student on
entering the university,but also on the real level of his knowledge, his psychological
make-up, his preferences and natural bent. The training he received in primary
and secondary school will influence his subsequent behaviour. The methods used
in secondary education are often too passive, due chiefly to the heavy syllabus to
be covered and not to a lack of merit or quality in the teachers. This over-academic
approach is particularly regrettable in the case of the natural and the experimental
sciences. O n arrival at the university, the new student is generally nonplussed by
the different teaching methods he finds there; he tends to go on absorbing his mental
pabulum just as it is put before him. This inclination towards parrotry, towards
learning by rote, must be combated.During the fist practical sessions it is not unusual
to find a student drawing not what he sees but what he thinks ought to be seen.
The student should develop a consciousness of the importance of the part he
will be called upon to play in the future. Yet his choice of subjects is rarely determined
by a vocation for a particular profession; it is often determined rather by the desire
to advance in the world, the hope of immediate material gain (Dufour).
Africans, as was said above, have an acute awareness of nature; they have inherited
an astonishing sum of ancestral lore. W e might therefore expect to see quantities
of students wishing to enrol for biology. Curiously enough, however, the number
reading for the certificates in the natural sciences is comparatively low, as is shown
by the figures in Table 1 from the Dakar Faculty of Science:
TABLE1. Student enrolment figures for the Dakar Faculty of Science, 1960-62
Bioche-
mistry,
Total Licence Microbio- General zoology Animal
Year enrol- (Degree Botany logy, Plant biology physiology
ment course) physio-

1960 298 109 9 10 13 17 15 64

1961 343 116 17 10 13 5 9 54

1962 317 109 Il 9 9 6 14 49

There are several reasons for these relatively low figures, the chief among them,
in my opinion, being misappreciation of the career opportunities available to
graduates in the biological sciences; belief that the only profession open to them
is teaching; the over-academic tendency referred to above,which results in a prefer-
ence, on the part of African students especially, for occupations unrelated to
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agriculture-the latter being doubtless considered as having less prestige value,
as Boubakar B a observes: ‘Students opt more readily for law and medicine owing
to the social status they confer’.

STAGES IN THE TEACHING OF BIOLOGY

In a system of the French type-and this is the type prevailing in the university
establishments of the French-speaking African States-several possibilities are
open to the student. However, the studies leading to a licence, of whatever type,
begin with a preliminary cycle which, in the case of the biological sciences, generally
leads to the Certzcate of Physical, Chemical and Natural Sciences (Sciences physi-
ques, chimiques et natureIles--SPCN)1 but may also lead to the Certificates of
General Mathematics-Physics (Mathématiques générales-Physique-MGP) or M a t h e
matics-Physics-Chemistry(Mathématiques-Physique-Chimie-MPC).
Once the student has gained the preliminary certzcate (certificatde propédeutique),
he has a choice between several courses, leading to the licences d’enseignement
(teaching), de recherches (research), de spécialisation (specialization), each consisting
of several certificates.
The organization of the teaching of biology may be summarized under the following
heads:

First cycle

Preliminary certzcates-SPCN, MGP, MPC. One of these three certificates (or

the equivalent) is required for admission to the second and third cycles.

Second cycle

Licence d’enseignement: (a) natural sciences: honours in biological sciences; (b) natu-
ral sciences: honours in earth sciences;‘(c) chemistry-physiology.
This degree consists of five or six certificates, of which the following pertain
essentially to biology: botany, zoology, general biology, biochemistry-microbiology-
plant physiology (BMPV),animal physiology. It qualifies the student to prepare
for the agrégafion, the CAPES (general secondary teachers’ certificate) and the
secondary level of teaching in general.
Licence de recherches or Licence de doctorat d’dtat (State doctorate). This degree
consists of four of the above certificates, two advanced certikates (advanced
botany, advanced zoology, general ecology and genetics), plus a certificate of the
candidate’s choice or a diploma of higher studies (DES).It qualifies the student for
university teaching and research, particularly in the sphere of agriculture.
Licence libre (non-teaching diploma). This degree consists of five certificates of the
candidate’s choice; it offers fewer career opportunities.

Third cycle

Students taking the studies in the third cycle must: (a) obtain a third-cycle certificate
(subjects: algology, cell biology, cryptogamy, biology of development, advanced
genetics and physiology of reproduction, microbiology, neurophysiology, cell

1. Certain diplomas, or eligibility for entry to certain schools of higher education, are
accepted as equivalents of the SPCN.

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 Teuching of biology at university level

physiology, plant physiology, tropical botany, for example). In Paris and Dakar-
tropical botany; (b) after obtaining the third-cycle certificate, prepare a thesis for
a third cycle doctorate. This qualifies the student for technical secondary teaching,
for university teaching as associate lecturer (maftre-assistant) for research mainly
in agriculture, and for work in private laboratories.

Diplomas of Higher Technical Studies (Diplómes d’études supérieures

techniques-DEST)

These are awarded at the end of a two-year course following the preliminary cycle:
First year-a certificate of technology in the subject chosen and the appropriate
licence certificate.
Second year-training period in a laboratory or an industrial concern.
This organization affords considerable scope for adaptation and choice.It is therefore
proving valuable and effective, more especially as it is supplemented by other
diplomas the main purposes and characteristics of which are listed below.

DIPLOMAS OTHER TH.4N THE ‘LICENCE’

Diploma of Higher Studies (Diplôme d’études supdrieures-DES)

This diploma is awarded on the results of not less than one year’s research work
in a laboratory, and following the maintenance of a thesis. There is no restriction
as to age, academic status or nationality. The subject is at the candidate’s choice,
even if it is not directly related to one of the courses given in the Faculty. However,
in exercising this option, the candidate must be guided by the advice of the Director
of Studies who will arrange for him to defend his thesis.
For people wishing to take up scientific research, this initiation into laboratory
work forms a necessary part of their training; it is also useful for students who
mean to make their career in the private sector; while, for intending secondary
school teachers, it fits them better to provide the practical teaching they are required
to give parallel with theoretical teaching (the DES is, moreover, required of
candidates for the agrbgation).

Doctorate of Engineering (Degree of Inghzieur-Docteur)

Candidates for this degree must possess, in addition to a preliminary certìíìcate

and three certificates of higher studies at their own choice, a diploma of a school
of engineering; they must also submit, in the form of a thesis, the results of two to
three years’ research work. An engineer’s degree awarded by an &?cole supérieure
d’agronomie exempts the candidate from the above-mentioned certificates. The
degree of Ingénieur-docteur is highly valued in industry, where it is not uncommonly
found. Holders of this degree are also eligible for inclusion in the list of persons
qualified to teach in universities as associate lecturers.

University Doctorate

The University Doctorate is not a diploma; it represents the recognition by a

university of the value of research work undertaken independently. As a rule, it
is necessary for the candidate to hold one or more licence certificates; but exemptions
may be granted, and persons possessing neither the baccalaurkat certficate nor a
licence certificate may successfully submit a thesis for the doctorate.

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Third-cycle doctorate

This is the final examination of the third cycle (see above). The purpose of the third
cycle is to give students a thorough grounding in a particular branch and to initiate
them into research work. Third-cycle students do not have to attend lectures on
methodology. They are taught through practical work and example the methods
and techniques exactly suited to the subject of their choice. In small groups, they
learn to work as a team and they develop a spirit of inquiry. The studies extend over
at least two years, at the end of which those candidates that have successfully main-
tained an unpublished thesis on their special subject are awarded the doctorate degree.
At Dakar, there is n o w a third-cycle certificate in tropical botany. Close contact
is maintained with the French universities, and, more particularly, with the University
of Paris. Arrangements are made to enable students of the various branches of
biology to prepare at least part of their third-cycle doctorate in Africa on subjects
likely to be of interest to the governments of the regions in question.

State Doctorate (Doctorat ès sciences-Doctorat d’Ëtat)

The diploma awarded for the most advanced research is the State Doctorate, which
is also the highest university degree. Candidates for the doctorat ès sciences must
be holders of a licence (licence de recherches). They are required to submit two
theses, one of which-the main thesis-is the outcome of original research over
a long period.

The above-mentioned diplomas are of notable value, if only on account of their

variety. They are designed for persons of widely differing educational background.
For instance, the Diploma of Higher Studies and, to some extent, the University
Doctorate can be obtained by persons who, although their general education may
be incomplete, can show that they possess real qualities as research workers, that
they have a definite gift for certain subjects. In Africa, especially, these diplomas
should enable latent talents to be brought to light, thereby allowing their owners
to take a share in the development of knowledge in their country. Instances could
be cited of young African botanists, passionately devoted to their profession, who
have been helped in this way to go forward with their excellent scientific work.
Bents of this kind are often apparent in young Africans who have remained in contact
with nature and whose powers of observation have not been blunted. African
governments would do well to take greater advantage of these diplomas for purposes
of the promotion of certain studies.

CURRICULA

The curricula for the preliminary certificates and the licence d’enseignement have
been standardized and are identical for all French universities and all university
establishments observing the same principles. This was a necessary measure, since
the knowledge imparted here is of a general character, not specialized, and none
of the more important biological subjects can be neglected completely. However,
within the limits thus imposed, teachers are free to use their o w n judgement in dealing
with the prescribed subjects.
For the SPCN, the curriculum is of course very broad. It enables students to
acquire a reasonable scientific grounding in a number of subjects. Those who wish
to proceed to the biological sciences will have to take, in addition to biological
subjects, the courses in physics, chemistry, geology and mathematics.

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 Teaching of biology at university level

In animal biology, the teaching bears on cytology, embryology, histology, the

main divisions of the animal kingdom, heredity and sexuality, and the evolution
of living organisms. In plant biology,the main subjects taught are general morphology
of vascular plants, cell biology, sexual reproduction, the biology of the most represen-
tative lower and higher plants. Some of these subjects will be dealt with more
thoroughly at the licence stage, but most of them constitute the generally accepted
foundation for future studies.
There is n o w a tendency-and a gratifying one, in m y view-to place greater
emphasis, in the SPCN, on the physical, chemical and mathematical sciences.
Mathematics, which used to be optional, have become compulsory. The descriptive
stage, though far from finished, is diminishing in importance. The teaching of
biology is assuming an increasingly practical character. The intrusion of the other
sciences into the sphere of biology is thus a phenomenon that is likely to spread;
but those sciences should then be taught from the biological standpoint. However,
the fullness of the syllabus (twenty-four half-hour lectures and practical work per
week), the liability of students to forget, the value of proceeding in an orderly'
manner from one well-mastered step to the next, all point to the necessity of spreading
the SPCN course over two years. Licence certificates curricula are broadly as follows:
Botany-systematic, morphological and biological study of the main plant groups
from the viruses and bacteria to the Angiospermae, together with the elements of
plantecology and phytogeography.
Zoology-study of the main animal groups, with due regard to their biological,
palaeontological and practical importance.
BMPV-one hour's lecture per week on biochemistry, half an hour on microbio-
logy and two hours on cell and plant physiology (nutrition, metabolism, growth
and development).
General biology-the main subjects are cytology, reproduction and sexuality,
causal embryology, genetics,problems of evolution, general ethology.
Aniinal physiology-the main subjects are concerned with the functions of nutrition
and the internal environment,endocrine glands, metabolic equilibrium, reproduction,
the unity of the organism and the main regulatory systems.
W e have found these curricula very comprehensive and conducive to the acquisition
of a broad knowledge of the main branches of biology.
The curricula for the advanced certificates and the third-cycle certificates are less
rigid, and teachers have more liberty in working out their programmes. In contrast
to the previous certificates, in connexion with which the object was to cover a great
deal of ground, the purpose here is more formative; the studies prescribed are
therefore more detailed, more specialized and more closely adapted to specific needs.

CURRICULUM TRENDS

Curriculum trends should be determined in the light: (a) of their adaptation to the
African environment; and (b) of the aims to be achieved.
In regard to the adaptation of curricula to the African environment, several
aspects have to be considered, including that of the subjects to be taught and that
of the persons for w h o m the teaching is intended.

Adaptation of curricula to the country

For biology teaching in Africa there is a risk, on the one hand, of not being suffi-
ciently rooted in African life and, on the other, of paying too little attention to what
is not African.

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It is unthinkable that as many examples as possible should not be taken from

the local environment; this would be all the more regrettable in view of the wealth
and variety of African flora, vegetation and fauna. For instance, large families of
Angiospermae are poorly represented or even non-existent in temperate lands; and
a number of problems-philogenetic, among others-cannot be solved or even
properly grasped unless these families are studied, with their morphological, biolo-
gical and physiological characteristics. Where animal life is concerned, R. Godet
observes that Africa is fortunate in possessing, in its highly differing regions, species
of animals which are at the very parting of the ways in their racial evolution. Mention
need hardly be made in this connexion of the Dipneusti, the large reptiles which
form the link between the lower and higher vertebrates, the mammals whose great
numbers and special characteristics fire research workers with enthusiasm.
W e should be at fault not to make use, for experimental purposes, of this plentiful
and often unusual material and not to draw attention to the major problems it
raises. Study of the complex and luxuriant equatorial forest,the tremendous expanses
of desert, and all the areas between them; the problems of dormancy, of bush fires,
of water-so vital to our regions-these are matters which it is impossible to overlook,
with all their practical implications, for the most part of national importance:
reclamation of arid lands especially on the fringes of the desert, control of epiphytic
diseases, malnutrition, nature conservation, etc.
Conversely, some ‘taxa’ of importance for the understanding of evolution are
non-existent or poorly represented in Africa; this is the case with the Gymnospermae,
which cannot be passed over in silence. At the same time, a great deal of research
work, especially physiological research, has as yet hardly taken shape in Africa,
and reference has to be made to work done elsewhere.
In short, the teaching of biology in African university establishments should,
whenever possible and without prejudice to its universality, take its examples from
the material at hand in tropical Africa.

Adaptation of curricula to the students of biology

Discussing, in Ghana, the problems of education, B. H.G.Chaplin states that only

a perfect knowledge of the intellectual potentialities of African children, students
and teachers can provide a sound basis for determining the lines on which education
should be developed.
Reference may be made in this connexion to an opinion expressed by Professor
G.Mangenot, whose experience in Africa is of long date-an opinion which I fully
share: ‘Africans are particularIy talented for all research based on observation.
For atavistic reasons they are well fitted to become botanists, ethnobotanists,
zoologists, agronomists, veterinarians or physicians, pedologists. They possess
precisely those natural gifts whose development is most necessary to the advancement
of their countries.’ O n the other hand, it would seem that many students-with
a few brilliant and noteworthy exceptions-have less of a bent towards other
subjects, such as, for instance, cytology or physiology. This is no doubt due to the
fact that, ‘intellectuallygifted young Africans and equally intellectually gifted young
Europeans, faced with the same problems, have recourse to different methods of
association, comparison, representation and reference’ (Morgaut).
The condition sine qua non for profitable teaching is that it be based on concrete
examples, that students be given a great deal of personal experience by hand and
eye of every step of the process, and that these experiences occur in logical order
(Chaplin). The student will discover the facts in a practical manner and will thus
more easily understand the scientific explanation. The teacher’s role is to direct

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 Teaching of biology at university kvel

the student’s own discoveries. This method, while undoubtedly more profitable,
is also much slower.

Determination of trends in the light of the aims to be achieved

In this connexion, three main objectives must be borne in mind:

1. Training of future teachers: the curricula for the licence d’enseignement should
be brought more closely into line with the instruction that the candidates will
later be called upon to provide as secondary school-teachers.
2. Training of future technicians and specialists: in the case of the former, especially,
the curriculum should take maximum account of specifically At’rican situations.
Here, mention must be made of a serious deficiency in the French-speaking uni-
versity centres: African countries, which are essentially agricultural, have no
facilities for the teaching of agriculture. This deficiency should be made good
by the institution of special certificates to be taken by intending specialists. The
certificate of higher studies in tropical botany, which includes some phytogeo-
graphy and phytosociology, plant ecology, botany, genetics and the improvement
of the main cultivated tropical plants, is in line with this objective. Other
certificates ought, however, to be instituted, such as, for instance, a certificate
of agricultural and medical entomology, a certificate of tropical animal physio-
logy, etc.
3. Training of future research workers: by taking subjects for diplomas and theses
from African life, and seeking to ensure that this choice fits in with local needs
and the wishes of governments (though without thereby detracting from the
freedom and disinterestedness that characterize basic research), the African
university will assert its individuality and fulfil its vocation.
Fortunately, one of the main characteristics of the university is a considerable
flexibility. There is therefore no need for the African university to be an exact replica
of the French university. Its structure may be similar, enabling it to benefit from
a body of tradition and a long and learned experience, but it will be in a position
to adapt its curricula by introducing local examples and having regard to local
requirements.

TEACHING: THEORETICAL A N D PRACTICAL

The method of formal lectures has for some time past come in for criticism-often
severe-on the ground that this method tends to develop, rather than the habit
of thinking,the ability to store up facts in the memory. H o w can theoretical teaching
be made profitable?
Firstly, in preparing his lectures, the teacher’s aim, far from turning his audience
into a live encyclopaedia, should be to train his students to grasp the problems
arising from the study of a given branch of biology, to perceive the way to set about
their solution, to cultivate their critical faculties and a nimbleness of mind. Teaching
that follows these lines can no longer be static or remote.
Secondly, to strengthen the dynamic character of the teaching, it should be
supplemented and illustrated by practical work, excursions, student exposbs, study
groups.
Of all these activities, only practical work is compulsory. This brings the student
into touch with live facts and offers him concrete examples to illustrate some of the
theoretical points made in the lectures, It is organized and directed by associate
lecturers and demonstrators (chefs de travaux). The proportion of practical to
theoretical teaching is at present as shown in Table 2.

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TABLE2. Relative proportions of theoretical and practical teaching (in hours per week)
~ ~~

Certificates Theoretical teaching Practical teaching

Botany 3 6
Zoology 4 I
BMPV 3% 3
General biology 2 4
Animal physiology 33% 4
Tropical botany 6
SPCN 9 15%

The associate-lecturers have also to explain any parts of the lecture that
may not have been fully understood, or to provide additional explanations; their
classes are always small so that they can follow the progress of the students indi-
vidually.
Student exposés and study groups are among the best ways of accustoming the
student to engage personally in analysis and synthesis. The teacher has recourse
to them at his own discretion.
The scientific and pedagogical value of exposés is beyond question, as I have
found from my o w n experience. The students are diffident at first about addressing
their contemporaries formally, but they soon come to appreciate the advantages
of the method; they learn to compile a bibliography, to draw up a report, to express
clearly a somewhat complex problem.The criticisms offered by their fellow students-
who are expected to take an active part in the discussion following the exposé-and
by the teacher, necessitate on their part the utmost exactitude, with regard both
to form and to substance. This interchange of ideas brings out previously unde-
veloped qualities, such as concentration, the ability to draw unexpected analogies,
openness and alertness of mind. In addition, the students lose their shyness and
gain self-confidence.The first exposés are usually clumsy, the last often brilliant.
Study groups serve a similar purpose, with all probably participating more
actively. They offer the further advantage of paving the way for team-work, the
teacher or associate lecturer playing neither a passive nor a dominant part but acting
as guide.
Exposés and study groups can only be really profitable if the number of students
taking part is not too large. Fortunately, the overcrowding which is such a feature
of academic life in Europe has not yet assailed the university centres in Africa, where
the teachers are still in very close touch with their students. It is interesting to note,
in this connexion, a remark made by Keita Moussa: We must ‘resist the African
student’s natural tendency to submissiveness, due to that respect which is accorded
to the teacher in Koranic schools’.
The efforts made by their teachers do not always meet with a response on the
part of students, many of w h o m prefer, through natural passivity or as a result
of up-bringing, to have knowledge meted out to them. In the words of one African
student: ‘as children w e ask no questions, w e have no right to do so; what our
parents, our teachers or books say is the truth’. T o guard against the student’s
absorbing a mass of knowledge which he cannot properly digest or acquiring a
mere fleeting erudition, an endeavour should be made:
T o provide a balanced theoretical teaching that will throw into relief the essential
facts, the march of ideas and the successive stages of progress. The role of the teacher
is not so much to transmit a body of knowledge, a cultural heritage, as to help young

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people to rediscover for themselves the significance of this knowledge. In systematics,

the bugbear of some students, it will probably be better to lay stress on the main
laws of evolution, on the complexity of structures from the virial nucleoproteins
to the higher plants and animals, than to recite lists of characteristics which will
be deadly dull for the student and which are to be found in textbooks.
This brings us to the question whether students should be provided with mimeo-
graphed copies of lectures. The question is controversial. Mimeographed copies
can be useful in giving details which are necessary but which would make oral
lectures complicated and difficult to follow. At the same time, however, they may
encourage students to stay away, to use their mimeographed copies instead of
attending the lectures.
To give a larger place to practical work, aimed at developing the students’faculties
of observation and improving their manual skill. Though students need not become
artists, they should learn to make accurate drawings. Dissecting and the assembly
of apparatus afford excellent opportunities for inculcating the principles of scientific
method, for enabling students to grasp and solve problems and, if need be, to draw
up practical work schemes.
T o increase the number of exposés and study groups.
In the words of a former President of the Union nationale des étudiants de France:
‘informationmust be made subsidiary to training’,

SUPPLEMENTARY EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES

Films and photographs

In the biological sciences, the study of forms is essential, whether w e think of the
forms in themselves or as the setting for the physiological functions of organisms.
Illustration is therefore an integral part of the teaching of these subjects. Audio-
visual media are of undoubted assistance in teaching, even at university level. The
image with commentary is a valuable source of information,able to rivet the atten-
tion of the student audience by mitigating the possibly over-abstract character of
a lecture. Projectorsfor slides,films and microscopic preparations,and an epidiascope,
are useful. But this equipment alone is not enough; it is also necessary to have
films and slides illustrating the subject of the lecture.
Films on mitosis, embryology, plant and animal movement, and also sets of
photographs concerning species belonging to families represented only slightly
or not at all in Africa, and of plant types, animal and plant ecology, etc., render
undeniable services. But any image is fleeting; it can only have ils full effect if it
serves to illustrate the lecture proper.
The foregoing media are exceedingly useful. However, too much should not be
expected of them. It is interesting in this connexion to note that our students prefer
that the diagrams illustrating the lectures be drawn in their presence rather than
prepared in advance. It should also be pointed out that showings of pictorial material
arranged, admittedly, for reasons of convenience, outside the normal teaching
hours (in the evening, for example) are not well attended.

Excursions

These constitute an important adjunct to biology teaching. They bring the student
into direct contact with nature and open up new horizons for him. With regard
to botany, five or six half-day or full-day excursions are made in the course of the

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year. A longer excursion, continuing over several days, is also arranged whenever
possible. The benefits derived are obvious, whether from the scientific or the human
standpoint. Confidence springs up, new contacts are made, new bents come to light,
older ones are strengthened. But there are difficulties in the way of these excursions:
they can be arranged only for small groups, they involve a fairly large expenditure
and they require transport. They are as beneficial for zoological as for botanical
studies and in certain cases it would be useful for the two to be combined.

Botanical garden and animal section

The botanical garden, animal section, insectarium and aquarium are necessary
facilities. They supply the appropriate laboratories with the research material they
need, as well as providing the practical work rooms with the animals and plants
required for observation and dissection. It is difficult to imagine experimental work
without these indispensable ancillary facilities. Their drawback is that they are
costly. Sufficient funds must be found for their installation and maintenance and for
the recruitment of suitable personnel.

Library and documentation

In addition to the general library, there should be a specialized and adequately

stocked library for each laboratory. For the students reading for the licence d’en-
seignement, a few basic works, a few of the most important learned reviews, would
afford a reasonable foundation.

EXAMINATIONS

Under the present system, a licence certificate is awarded on the results of written,
practical and oral tests.Each series-generally carrying a maximum of forty marks-is
eliminatory. In this way the depth of knowledge is sounded over a comprehensive
range, enabling the candidate’s merit to be judged on a sufficiently broad basis.
In my view, examinations are indispensable. They constitute a powerful stimulus,
spurring the student on to work. However, they present certain drawbacks, which
can be mitigated by a series of corrective measures.
Students tend to leave the bulk of their work to the month before their examina-
tion. Regular, thorough work throughout the year is replaced by a last-minute rush,
with everything then forgotten as fast as it was learnt. To avoid this risk of
‘cramming’, the main criticism levelled against examinations, the following would
be helpful.
Firstly, the questions asked-especially in the written papers-should be general
in scope. Knowing that he will be asked questions of this kind, the student will
have to cease looking at problems as they are expounded at lectures, step by step;
he will have instead to follow the subject through the successive steps. In this way,
he will be forced to try to arrive at a general understanding.
Secondly, the defects of examinations could be palliated if they were supplemented
by a few oral tests held, for example, one each term (though this is only possible
with small numbers of students). These tests would act as partial examinations,
and the marks obtained in them as well as in the practical work would be taken
into consideration at the examination. The quality of exposés should also be taken
into account.
Another advantage of examinations spread over a period is to oblige students
to go over the same subjects several times, thus becoming thoroughly familiar with

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them. There is no doubt that the natural sciences call for a considerable effort of
memory. Repeated revision will help to establish knowledge in the mind. One of my
former teachers, R.Maire, the well known scientist, used to say-partly in jest, of
course-that botany had to be forgotten six times before one could begin to know it.

DURATION OF STUDIES

There is much talk at the moment about accelerated training. This is not without
its dangers; it is liable to lead to that ‘second-rate’education which is so much
resented by African students. However, in view of the increased needs of developing
countries, such as the countries of Africa, there is justification for wondering whether
something cannot be done to speed up the process.
The teaching of the biological sciences, which necessitate a long apprenticeship,
is therefore faced with two inconsistent requirements: (a) the need to provide in
the shortest possible time the senior personnel, specialists and technicians that the
nation needs; (b) the need to ensure that such senior personnel, specialists and
technicians are of real ability. But it is not desirable to sacrifice quality to speed.
Though accelerated training undoubtedly has its advantages for the ‘turning out’
of technicians and, in a lesser degree, of specialists, it would be a mistake to overrate
its virtues in the sphere of higher education.

RESEARCH A N D TEACHING

At university level, research cannot be separated from teaching. This may seem
a truism; it has sometimes been suggested, however, that the two branches be
disassociated and entrusted to different groups of persons. Yet it is almost unthinkable
that a university teacher should not at the same time be a research worker. H e must
himself be grappling with the problems of research, in order to be able to explain
them, to help his students to perceive the difficulties they present and appreciate
the subtle but manifest satisfactions they offer. Besides the lecture hall and the
practical work rooms, there should be laboratories. It is in laboratories that the
student’s training is completed, that he becomes a research worker; and in labora-
tories that the most important work for diplomas and theses is done.
In the subjects studied, attention will be focused primarily on African aspects,
and the subjects themselves will come within the province of basic research, which
is essentially a concern of the university. Some prospect of practical application,
in the near or more distant future, will be an advantage, without, however, any
incursion into the domain of applied research, which should be left to the various
specialized scientific establishments whose responsibility it is.
Regard must be had to the special conditions of work in Africa. The choice is
wide-sometimes too wide-and there is a tendency for research to be dispersed
over a vast field. Purely ‘prestige’ research, offering no corresponding advantage
to the country, should therefore be avoided at a time when other, apparently less
spectacular,studies can be more profitable. It is obviously better to carry out in
Europe research demanding costly equipment which would not be fully used here,
necessitating extremely delicate, fragile apparatus that is difficult to maintain away
from the specialized centres, or requiring teams of workers that are difficultto
assemble. ‘Forthis reason, the extension of research in pure cytology,cell physiology,
physico-chemical virology or even advanced biochemistry should not be encouraged
in tropical lands for the time being’ (G.Mangenot).
These considerations lead us to be on our guard against certain tempting but
costly projects and to keep the available funds for the organization of laboratories
Basic documents

for the pursuit of specific aims. To achieve these, it is necessary: (a) to install the
supplementary facilities mentioned above; (b) to expand equipment; (c) especially,
to increase the number of research workers; and (d) even more important, to increase
the number of technicians-technical assistants, draftsmen, photographers, horti-
culturalists, prospectors, personnel required for the organization and maintenance
of the experimental gardens and animal section, the herbaria and animal collections,
the seed depots, etc.-necessary to the types of research contemplated.
At the present time, it is the human factor that offers the greatest obstacle
to the satisfactory extension of research. As G.Mangenot points out, ‘the recruit-
ment of large numbers of staff is therefore the most pressing need of basic
research’.
The programme of research is vast. It includes, on the one hand, inventory and
observation work (inventories of flora and fauna, inventory of biocenoses, plant
and animal morphology and anatomy. ..)and, on the other, experimental work
(plant and animal ecology, study of the behaviour, growth and development of
living organisms, flower biology, sexual and asexual reproduction, microbiology,
animal and plant pathology. . .) ‘Some of these studies condition the economic
development of tropical lands, while others, yielding a less immediate material
gain but of equal scientific interest, should for preference be conducted in hot
countries because of the presence in those countries of many structural or morpho-
logical biological types about which little is as yet known.’

EXCHANGES, MISSIONS AND FELLOWSHIPS

Personal contacts are of prime importance. In Africa, the drawbacks inherent in

isolation are apt to be accentuated by great distances. Documentation and exchanges
of work help to palliate these drawbacks but without overcoming them.Consequently,
it is advantageous to provide for missions, study tours and periods of work and
observation in laboratories abroad.
These should benefit not only students but also research workers and members
of the teaching staff; they should operate both ways-from Africa to the outside
world and from the outside world to Africa-as well as between the various scientific
institutions in Africa.
Where students are concerned, travel would be most profitable if a good cross-
section could participate in it. The results would probably be best at the third-cycle
level. Fellowships should be awarded to deserving young Africans and Europeans
alike. This two-way movement would promote an interchange of ideas and increase
the abilities of each beneficiary.
Fellowships should also be awarded to persons preparing theses, so as to enable
them to add to their stock of information, learn new techniques, and finish their
work in the places where scientific and technical innovations originate.
These aims are valid for research workers and teachers whose research work, in
many cases, can only be finished after visits to European or other herbaria, libraries
and laboratories. Exchanges of ideas and personal contacts with eminent colleagues
in other countries cannot fail to be extremely beneficial.
SO as to infuse new life into the teaching, it would, on the other hand, be an
advantage if teachers from other universities could take a share in it, giving the
students the benefit of their particular skill. Moreover, in this way more or less
close links could be established between the laboratories. Research plans might
be drawn up in common. The research would be shared between teams: some, in
Africa,would collect observations and conduct experiments in the field, while others,
in France or elsewhere in Europe, would deal with the points calling for advanced

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specialization and delicate equipment. A symbiosis of this kind would certainly

produce excellent results.
But it is not enough for such connexions to be established with European labora-
tories concerned with African problems; they should also exist between research
centres in Africa. They would make it possible to plan vast programmes of research
into problems which can be solved only at the continental or international level-such,
for instance, as those pertaining to the realms of phytogeography or zoogeography,
which require the preparation of maps covering several territories.

CONCLUSIONS

What has been said above by no means exhausts this vast subject, on which we
have been able to touch only by leaving aside certain aspects. The following are
briefly our main conclusions.
Science is always a paying proposition. In the continent of Africa, where the
economy is predominantly agricultural and where malnutrition deficiencies and
under-employment are so common, the biological sciences are bound to play a
very important part.
Modern higher education in the biological sciences is indispensable for the
development of agricultural research which, in turn, is essential to the economic
advancement of the African countries.
The structure of the African university offers many possibilities. It is based on
the European university structure, which has stood the test of experience. It would
therefore be well to maintain that structure in general, while adapting it to African
needs, with such alterations or additions as may enable it to render the maximum
service. In effecting this adaptation, the main lines of the European curricula for
the licence d’enseignenient would be preserved, but most of the examples would
be chosen from the African environment.
Consideration should be given to the institution of certificatesrelated to specifically
African and agricultural problems. It is surprising that in African countries, where
the main activities are agricultural, this situation should not be reflected in education.
Certificates of tropical botany, agricultural and medical entomology, tropical animal
physiology, etc. ... would enable this defect to be remedied through the training
of research workers who could contribute towards the development of those
branches of science that are related to agriculture. The third-cycle certificates are
those best suited to this purpose.
There is a great need for personnel, whether in secondary and higher education
or in research. Arrangements calculated to broaden access to university studies are.
therefore excellent.
Accelerated training in biology is only conceivable in combination with high
quality teaching. In practice, this involves two inconsistent requirements. While
intensive courses can be justified for the training of technicians, it would seem more
difficult to introduce arrangements for acceleration, apart from certain minor
adjustments, in the sphere of higher education.
Africans are usually much attracted to research in botany and zoology. These
subjects are in tune with their aptitudes, their predilection for nature and their
inherited talents. They have perhaps less of a bent for physiological studies,
presumably because these are more foreign to their early education in the family
and at school.
Biology teaching must make allowance for a certain taste on the part of the
African student for learning by rote. Consequently, it should proceed by gradual
stages, from the simple to the complex, introducing practical examples, making

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extensive use of demonstration and practical work, of exposés and study groups,
and developing everything that may contribute towards an understanding of the
often complicated phenomena relating to life. In the curricula, then, training will
be given pre-eminence over information.
At university level, there is a close relation between research and teaching. The
various diplomas of higher studies and doctorates which are the outcome of university
studies are valuable for the advancement of knowledge. Those African States that
do not yet have trained research workers in sufficient numbers should encourage
students to read for these diplomas by offering certain facilities to those who are
prepared to do so.
Natural conditions in Africa are exceptionally favourable to biological research.
In addition to its importance to the African countries themselves, this research
is of interest to science as a whole. The plants and animals of the temperate regions
alone can give no more than an incomplete notion of botany, zoology and biology
in general.
Links should be established, maintained or strengthened between the various
scientific and university establishments. The necessary contact with research workers
in other countries can be provided by means of exchanges and missions.

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