Accessibility statement

Professor Robin Millar

Biography

I joined the Department in 1982 as a Lecturer in Education, after 8 years teaching physics and general science in comprehensive schools in Edinburgh. Before that I had graduated with a BA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge (Part II in Theoretical Physics), completed a PhD in Medical Physics at the University of Edinburgh, and trained as a science teacher at Moray House College, Edinburgh. I was promoted to a Personal Chair in 1996, and appointed Salters’ Professor of Science Education in 2006. I held this position until I retired in 2014.

From 1982-2014, I contributed to the undergraduate, PGCE, and higher degree programmes, and supervised PhD students. I directed or co-directed major research projects on young people’s images of science, the influence of students’ procedural and conceptual knowledge on their performance of science investigations, and the use of diagnostic questions for stimulating changes in teachers’ classroom practices. I was co-ordinator of the Evidence-based Practice in Science Education (EPSE) Research Network, which was funded in the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme. I was also a core member of the Nuffield Foundation seminar series that led to the Beyond 2000 report, which I co-authored.

I have been centrally involved in several major curriculum development projects, including Salters GCSE Science, AS-level Science for Public Understanding, A-level Science in Society and the Twenty First Century Science suite of GCSE courses.

Since my retirement, I have continued writing and lecturing on science education topics, and contribute to several research and development projects, including the OECD PISA project as a member of the Science Expert Group.

I was made an OBE in 2015 for services to science education.

Contact details

Department of Education
University of York
York
YO10 5DD