General Information

The History of Science, Technology and Medicine (HSTM) is a vigorous interdisciplinary field that is represented in many UK institutions of Higher Education, variously in departments of History, Philosophy, Social Studies or as autonomous groups or 'Centres'. Its vibrant research culture is now complemented by an increasingly strong commitment to developing teaching in HSTM, teaching that typically consists of contributions to mainstream degree programmes and specialized service courses for students in non-HSTM programmes. Research and development of both sorts of teaching are nurtured by the PRS-LTSN centre at the University of Leeds within its wider remit of supporting pedagogy in the field of 'History & Philosophy of Science' (broadly construed).

As Associate Director for History and Philosophy of Science, the activities in HSTM area co-ordinated by Dr Graeme Gooday (Senior Lecturer at University of Leeds) working closely with the Information Officer, Dr David Mossley and other members of the PRS-LTSN team. These activities include maintaining a website; writing review and discussion articles for this website; liaising with scholarly bodies such as the British Society for the History of Science, History of Science Society, and Society for the Social History of Medicine, and organizing workshops for HSTM teachers. A major recent achievement was a collaboration with HUMBUL and the Resource Discovery Network to produce the on-line virtual tutorial Internet for History & Philosophy of Science.

The PRS-LTSN has received a positive response from an active and committed network of HSTM teachers in the UK. This community was well-represented at the first LTSN workshop for HSTM teachers held at Leeds in May 2001; the workshop brought together two dozen practitioners from the Universities of Aberdeen, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Kent, Leeds, Leicester, London, Liverpool (Chester), Manchester and Open University to discuss issues of common concern. A full report of this meeting is available on-line and was published in the first issue of the PRS-LSTN Journal in which a number of important longer-term aims were identified for the HSTM community. These were:

• Identification of effective alternatives to essay and examination assessment for service courses;
• Improved access to pictorial and textual materials for use by H.E. teachers;
• Enhanced use of www resources for learning and teaching;
• Creating HSTM benchmarking guidelines to enable articulation of programme objectives etc.;
• Supplying planners of AS level in History & Philosophy of Science with historical advice;
• Extending the existing debate on setting, writing and marking of the HSTM essay.

To facilitate achievement of these projects the PRS-LTSN has the following avenues for HSTM practitioner pursuit of these objectives:

1. an e-list for posting messages to H.E. HSTM teachers;
2. a consultancy service by e-mail;
3. a developing programme of institutional visits to enable discussion of special pedagogical concerns;
4. funding is available for which HE teachers can apply to support important pedagogical research;
5. a future schedule of annual workshops, the next probably to be held in London in 2002.

Any enquiries about the above should be directed to Graeme Gooday.