Several reports influenced science teaching during this period. In 1932, A Program for Science Teaching was published by the National Society for the Study of Education which emphasized a continuous twelve year curriculum, the organization of science courses around general principles, generalizations or "big ideas" in science, and the inclusion of the method of science as an integral part of science. Although the term "inquiry" was not used, the implication was that science teaching should constitute more than the teaching of facts, but should involve students in the methods of science---observing, experimenting and hypothesizing.
The authors of a Program for Science Teaching proposed that science education should contribute to the major aim of education, namely "life enrichment through participation in a democratic social order." In fact the report suggested that the utility of subject matter would be measured by the degree to which it reaches the interests and relates to the well being of students.
The authors also recommended a K-12 science curriculum that should be based on the major generalizations of science. They recommended adding more physical science to the elementary program, and suggested general science for grades 7 - 9. They suggested that content should include problems that are related to the student's world, and that would enable the students to use the methods of science.
A second report of this period was Science in General Education published by the Progressive Education Association in 1938. This report focused attention in the needs of students, and recommended a program that looked at the psychology of the learner. The report also recommended a greater correlation between science and everyday living. The main aims of science, according to this report included:
The Progressive Education Movement was a movement that provided an alternative approach to the traditional school. John Dewey suggested that the Progressive Education Movement appealed to many educators because it was more closely aligned with America's democratic ideals. Dewey put it this way:
One may safely assume, I suppose, that one thing which has recommended the progressive movement is that it seems more in accord with the democratic ideal to which our people is committed than do the procedures of the traditional school, since the latter have so much of the autocratic about them. Another thing which has contributed to its favorable reception is that its methods are humane in comparison with the harshness so often attending the policies of the traditional school.
Two aspects of the Progressive Education Movement that impacted all of education, but perhaps appealed to science teachers was the movement's notion of the child-centered curriculum, and the project method. Both of these ideas have survived, even to this day, and over the years were given different degrees of emphasis. For example, in the late 60s and 70s, the child-centered curriculum was represented in the Humanistic Education movement (sometimes known as affective education). The humanistic ideas of the present day were similar to the progressive ideals of the 30s.
I would like to point out that the child or student-centered approach is major paradigm implying beliefs about the nature of learning, the goals of education, and the organization of the curriculum Emphasis on student-centeredness has waxed and waned in American education to the present day. The PEA represents one of the first and most important advocates of student-centeredness.
The PEA sparked the development of a number of experimental schools which embodied the philosophy of the progressive educators. Science in the progressive schools was an opportunity to involve students directly with nature or with hands-on experiences with science phenomena, and to relate science to not only the emotional and physical well-being of the child, but to the curriculum as a whole. There is a rich literature on this movement which describes innovative child-centered programs such the organic school, Dewey's Schools of To-Morrow, the Gary (Indiana) plan, the Lincoln School, and the Parker School.
The project method, which had not been a foreign idea to science teachers, was given great impetus during the Progressive Education Movement. The project method was described by William Kipatrick, a professor at Teachers College of Columbia University. Glatthorn describes Kilpatrick's approach as follows
"...any meaningful experience---intellectual, physical, or aesthetic---could serve as the organizing center of the project, as long as it was characterized by purpose. And for every project, there were four steps: purposing, planning, executing, and judging. While it might be necessary from time to time for the teacher to make suggestions about each of these four stages, it was preferable, from Kilpatricks' viewpoint, for the child to initiate and determine each stage. And these project, strung together, became the curriculum.
Near the end of this period, there was an increasing emphasis on the importance of science in general education. The report, Science Education in American Schools (1947) by the National Society for the Study of Education summarized the the Educational Policies Commission Report and the Harvard Committee on General Education with the following statements
• Science instruction should begin early in the experience of the child• All education in science at the elementary and secondary levels should be general. Even for students going to college, general courses in biological science and in physical science (according to the Harvard report) "should make a greater contribution to the student's general education and his preparation for future study than a separate one-year course in physics and chemistry." The document of the Educational Policies Commission goes even further in its recommendations for reorganization of high school science courses.
• The development of competence in use of the scientific method of problem solving and the inculcation of scientific attitudes transcend in importance other objectives in science instruction.