The roots of what we might call modern science education can be traced to the latter part of the 19th Century; many of the recommendations and philosophies proposed in these early years have influenced science education, even to today. Several important ideas that form the foundation for modern science education had their origins during this period. These include the organization of the science curriculum, the methodology of inquiry, nature study, elementary science, and the social goals of science teaching.
In 1895 the National Education Association appointed a committee of twelve university scientists and an equal number of high school teachers. Four years later the committee recommended a K-8 and 9-12 science program as follows :
• Elementary School (K-8)
Nature Study ( Two Lessons per Week)
• High School (9-12; Four Lessons per Week)
Grade 9: Physical GeographyGrade 10: Biology; botany and zoology; or botany or zoolog
Grade 11: Physic
Grade 12: Chemistry
The main purposes of teaching science during this early period was:
There was some, but limited emphasis on skills and methods of science and very little emphasis on scientific method, scientific attitudes, appreciations, or social implication of science.
Elementary Science
At the elementary school level, two contrasting approaches to science education dominated the curriculum, namely nature study and elementary science. Nature study was a child-centered approach to teaching which focused on helping students develop a love of nature. The content focused primarily on the study of plants, animals and ecology, with teachers emphasizing the study of the local environment. Many of the progressive schools in America adopted the nature study approach. Study guides, teacher's resource books, and lesson plans were written and distributed describing the approach of the nature study advocates. Because of its progressive nature, the Nature Study Movement was associated with an educational concept known as "teaching the whole child." Nature study was an interdisciplinary approach, and science was seen as an integral part of art, language and literature. Lawrence Cremin, in his book The Transformation of the School, says this about the Nature Study Movement
Science was begun in the form of nature study, and under the brilliant leadership of Wilbur Jackman, the children conducted trips through neighboring fields and along the lake shore. They made observations, drawings, and descriptions, thus correlating their work in science with their studies in language and art.
Nature study was the dominant approach to science in the elementary school, and its program reached its peak in the period 1900 - 1910. Elements of the Nature Study Movement still persist today. But as a Movement it faded away in the 1930s. Individual "nature study units" were integrated into the dominant approach to science in the elementary school, and as a "movement" it reappeared in late sixties and seventies. In the language of the 1990s, nature study is analogous to the Environmental Education Movement, which will discussed in Chapter 5. Elementary science, however, moved into the classroom, and the content was broadened to include physical science.
The alternative approach to science in the elementary school was the Elementary Science Movement which was defined and outlined by Jerrold Craig. In a study he did on the curriculum for elementary science he recommended a science program that was broad in scope including the life and physical sciences. He devised a continuous program, K-8, emphasizing an articulated unified program aimed at developing an understanding of significant ideas in science. The content of elementary science was developed by panels of parents and educators who identified important ideas and generalizations that should be emphasized grade by grade. This method, and indeed the results of study still dominate the content of elementary science textbooks and state science curriculum guides---even today! His recommendations became the basis of elementary science text programs around the country. Science readers were developed for each grade, and consequently elementary science became more abstract in comparison to the nature study approach which valued first-hand experiences in nature by the students.
For all practical purposes remained the same until the development of the elementary science reform projects of the 1960s and 1970s.
Secondary School Science
The secondary science curriculum during the period up to 1920 consisted of one semester courses in many different subjects such as astronomy, geology, physical geography, botany, zoology and physiology in the first two years of high school. Later during this period the organization of the science curriculum (9-12) evolved to the general science, biology, chemistry and physics as one year courses. This pattern, for all practical purposes, as persisted to the present.
High school teachers, near the later part of this phase, shifted their goals to include process, attitudes and application. Some major goals proposed during this period included scientific thinking and understanding of the scientific method, development of attitudes toward science, and increased emphasis on the practical application of scientific knowledge.
A phenomenon that had an impact of the science curriculum was the Junior High Movement. To provide a transition from the elementary to high school environment, a 6-3-3 organization of schools was proposed. Elementary science was limited to grades K-6. The General science had replaced physical science as the "terminal" course for students not completing high school. With the advent of the junior high school, general science was "pushed down" to the 7th and 8th grade, and became the dominant science offering at this level for many years. Although the junior high school was designed to provide a transition from elementary to high school, its curriculum took on the appearance and character of the high school. Teachers were organized into subject matter departments, and the course offerings reflected the high school curriculum.
Roots of Inquiry
Now, lets shift our attention away from the content of the early science, and take a look at the nature of inquiry in science teaching. What were its roots? When did it emerge in science teaching?
According to Carlton Steadman, inquiry and experimentation, as is currently understood and practiced, was resisted by most practicing scientists for philosophical reasons until the mid-1800s. Its place in science teaching has taken even longer. In 1842, the American Association for the Advancement of Science was organized as a result of a conference in Boston of the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists. The geology group essentially was transformed into the AAAS. AAAS joined forces with the forruner of the National Education Association and both proposed the idea of a national university and a school for advanced training in science. However, because they were concerned with basic research and more uniform curricula, the time was still not receptive for inquiry.
Much of the early innovation in science education had its beginnings at the university level, especially in the work of several college teachers. Stedman highlights the work of three early scientists who influenced science teaching.
Benjamin Sillman (1779-1864) developed Yale's first chemistry lab, and is credited with teaching the first course in geology in the United States. He believed in using visual aids in teaching, and illustrated his lectures with a five-feet square pictures.
Louis Agassiz, whose claim to fame as a scientist was his early work on glacial theory. But Agassiz was also an outstanding educator who blended Pastalozzi's object lessons (having the student experience objects using the senses), discovery learning and active involvement. As a teacher, Agassiz had students work in his lab to observe specimens first hand, thereby gaining knowledge experientially. Steadman reports that Agassiz gave students over 1,000 specimens and had them separate the specimens into species. Upon examining their work he praised their accomplishments and discoveries.
Asa Gray, a colleague of Agassiz's at Harvard, was a biologist who according to Stedman was the "first citizen of Darwin." Gray, through public speaking and writing tried to reduce the conflict between evolution and religious views, a conflict which is still with us. As a teacher, Gray tried to help students perceive his subject (botany) as a whole related system.
Sillman and Agassiz attempted to make learning meaningful (at a time when the classics flourished and mental discipline was stressed) by encouraging laboratory experiences and practical experience. It is here the roots of inquiry teaching lie.
It took many years for the roots of inquiry to grow into a dominant philosophy in science teaching. This occurred in the late 1950s and 1960s with the development of the science reform projects.