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Science education in Europe has recently been the focus of considerable attention. The predominant factor behind this interest is the declining numbers of young people choosing to pursue the study of science [1] and the threat this poses to the Lisbon agenda which seeks to place the EU at the forefront of the knowledge economy of the future. The idea behind these two Nuffield-funded London seminars was to draw together a group of leading science educators, from across Europe, to consider the state of science education in the EU. Invitations were extended to those engaged in science education, albeit principally academic science educators, from a range of European countries that were felt to represent the diversity of countries within the EU. The first seminar was held in London, at the Nuffield Foundation headquarters, on June 1-2, 2006 and the second was held, in the same year, on December 7-8. In addition, an initial draft of the main findings of the report was presented and discussed at the biennial conference of the European Science Education Research Association held in Malmö, Sweden in August, 2007.

The focus of the first seminar was very much on exploring the current state of science education across Europe, the issues that are confronting it, and the evidence for those views. The seminars sought to explore what were felt to be the four key issues that are central to the nature of the teaching and learning experience offered by school science. That is: