Collaboration and networking across Europe between researchers in this field started in the 1990s but has not fully developed yet. Technology Education Research is an even younger field, but developing fast. At the same time an academic community of researchers interested in Science Teacher Education is emerging. This emergence of such a network is seen by the science education community as a positive development. A network should allow a stronger collaborative effort by researchers in Europe, to exchange developments and results of research, and thus to influence its future.
New challenges face science education across Europe.
Pupils' achievements are neither necessarily related to the amount of science in the curriculum nor related to the amount spent on science education. Different factors such as the quality of the teaching and learning and national teacher education programmes, as well as national cultures and ideologies, need to be brought in to explain these differences. The science education research community is already engaged in projects that focus on understanding and analysing these different factors. These projects are the beginnings of sharing and forging common understandings about science education across Europe. Science and Technology Education is also changing.