Dear ESERA members,
It is with deep regret that we have to inform you that Philip Adey, Emeritus Professor of Cognition, Science and Education, passed away on Thursday evening. Philip had been seriously ill for some time.
After leaving Bryanston School in Dorset, Philip gained a BSc in Chemistry and a PGCE (London University). He subsequently gained an Academic Diploma in Education from the London Institute of Education. He was appointed Head of Chemistry at the Lodge School in Barbados from 1963-70 and went on to become a Consultant on the Caribbean Integrated Science Project based at the University of the West Indies from 1970-73. He returned to the UK in 1974 to complete his PhD at Chelsea College. He worked for the British Council in London and Jakarta, Indonesia from 1979-84. He joined King’s in 1984 as a researcher and went on to become lecturer, senior lecturer, reader and professor. He retired in 2004 although he continued working on projects in Brunei, China, Hong Kong, Hungary and Poland. At one time he was Education Commissioner for Westminster.
Throughout the period at Chelsea and King’s, Philip pursued a research and development programme related to the assessment, and then the enhancement, of school students’ intellectual ability, leading to a series of publications related to Cognitive Acceleration and the development of extensive professional development programmes for teachers. His work, with Michael Shayer and Carolyn Yates, was highly influential, remarkably successful and internationally renowned. Together with Michael Shayer, Philip wrote two best-selling books, ‘Towards a Science of Science Teaching’ and ‘Really Raising Standards: cognitive intervention and educational achievement’. ‘Thinking Science’, the curriculum materials of the CASE (Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education) project written with Shayer and Yates, can still be found in schools throughout the UK and beyond. His later work on CASE in primary schools involved a number of colleagues in the UK, the US and Australia. Philip was elected as the first Secretary of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) in 1995.
Philip was an outstanding colleague – collegial, tireless and intellectually rigorous. He engaged with students, new researchers, visitors and experienced colleagues on equal terms and his warmth and wit could light up a room. He was an excellent speaker and countless thousands of teachers have been inspired during his professional development sessions. His commitment to high quality science education for all was evident throughout his career. He delighted in challenging many of the orthodoxies held dear by politicians and policy-makers and debunking myths in education generally. He was determined to attend the launch of his latest book ‘Bad Education’ last November despite being seriously ill and was delighted to see so many of his friends and colleagues. It was the last time that many of us saw him.
Our thoughts are with his family, especially his wife Viga, his sons Gideon and Lewis, and his grandchildren Ayesha, Kamilah, Saffron and Leo.
Details of the service will be available soon. Gideon has asked that we circulate the news of Philip’s passing and that we include his contact details which are Gideon.Adey@Kineticww.com.
On behalf of the ESERA executive,
Costas Constantinou and Manuela Welzel-Breuer
