Almost half of students who quit physics at 16 in England say they did not enjoy the subject, with a quarter noting that teaching was poor. That’s according to a recent survey carried out by the Ogden Trust – a charity that seeks to encourage people to study physics above the age of 16. Most pupils who do carry on with physics post-16 are, however, satisfied with their teaching.
The trust surveyed more than 1000 undergraduate students at UK universities, roughly half of whom are doing science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) degrees. Students who had taken physics A-level – about 20% of respondents – report largely positive experiences, with 86% saying it had been well taught. Some 83% of those students say their physics teachers had strong specialist knowledge.
A less positive picture emerges from the other 80% of undergraduates who never took A-level physics. Almost half of them say they did not enjoy the subject, with a quarter describing the teaching as poor. The difference could partly be due to self-selection: physics A-level students will have actively chosen the subject and therefore been more engaged.
Another reason is that A-level physics classes are usually small and more likely to be taught by specialist physics teachers. Students who carry on with physics therefore have a better experience of the subject than those who gave up at 16, hampered by the estimated shortage of 3500 physics teachers in England alone. “GCSE-level teachers will often be teaching out of their field without the confidence and subject knowledge to inspire the class and support a depth of understanding,” says Clare Harvey, chief executive of the Ogden Trust.
Career advantage
The survey does, however, find that physics is the top-rated subject at A-level for inclusivity and for teachers being effective subject advocates. Of the students who did not take physics post-16, only 12% cite a lack of inclusivity as the reason – the lowest percentage out of 10 barriers mentioned. Most participants, including those who did not study A-level physics, also understand the career advantages it offers, with two-thirds believing it improves students’ prospects.
“The survey helps to validate and reinforce our strategy to support teachers, providing coaching and mentoring to keep specialist physics teachers in the profession and providing subject knowledge continuing professional development and support to upskill teachers who have to teach physics when it is not their specialism,” adds Harvey. “Retaining and retraining teachers to enhance the teaching and learning of physics remains central to our strategy.” Tackling England’s physics teacher shortage with a new apprenticeship scheme
The results of the survey tally with work carried out by the Institute of Physics (IOP), which publishes Physics World. It points out that the lack of specialist physics teachers particularly affects students from lower socio-economic groups, who are three times less likely to take physics A-level than those from higher-income groups. As a result, 70% of A-level physics students come from about 30% of schools – often in the wealthiest areas of the UK.
“This is an important piece of work from the Ogden Trust and chimes with our experience that the quality of physics teaching up to 16 is affecting students’ deep engagement with the subject and reducing their likelihood of choosing it for A-level,” says Louis Barson, director of science, innovation and skills at the IOP. “The gradual loss of specialist physics teachers and the deployment of out-of-field teachers to teach physics up to 16 has correlated with the decline in uptake at A-level.”
The IOP has called on UK governments to improve both the recruitment and retention of physics teachers, which sees nearly half of teachers leaving within the first five years, and to fully fund retraining programmes for out-of-field teachers. Barson adds that the IOP has developed programmes that support recruitment and the retraining of out-of-field teachers – often in partnership with the Ogden Trust. This year, the number of accepted places on a physics “Initial Teacher Education” courses is 70% up on last year.
