Science education initiatives : sustaining initiatives vs sustained initiative

Despite attempts to change school science there remains a dissatisfaction with it. Given this outcome it is appropriate to examine initiatives in science education. This paper reports a summary of a selected sample of these initiatives, current in Australia in the second half of 1998, and identifies trends arising. The emphasis remains on curriculum change associated with the official science education agenda in each state rather than local school-based initiatives. We may have developed ways to initiate a change and even, in some cases, to sustain specific initiatives, yet there is a need to think afresh about what we want by way of initiatives in science education.