Prologue:What's~1 PatI Lessons from the H istory of Dorothy B. Rosenthal is a lecturer in science education at Cali- fornia State University, Long Beach, CA 90840. She eamed an M.A. in zoology from the Universityof Californiaat Berkeleyand an Ed.D. in curriculumfrom the Universityof Rochester.Prior to moving to Californiain 1988,Rosenthal was coordinatorof science and health for the Rush-HenriettaSchools in New York. She has Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/52/3/151/44509/4449067.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 worked on projectsfor the New Yorkand CaliforniaState Depart- ments of Education.Her researchinterests center around science, technology, society education and the history of science educa- Dorothy B. Rosenthal tion. The approach of a new decade or century always courses in general biology (Finley 1926). At the same seems to stimulate thinking about the future, as for time, the specialized botany, zoology and human example, the theme of the 1989 NABT national con- physiology courses declined in popularity. By 1935, vention "biology education: moving toward the 21st they were all but eliminated from high school cur- century." I believe our ability to look into the future ricula (Rosen 1959). is only as good as our abilityto look into the past, but The success of general biology has been attributed most efforts at curriculumreform and development to three main factors: have not given much consideration to the perspec- 1. The enormousinfluence of colleges and universi- tive of history (Barnard1968; Bybee 1982). My major ties. Most high school teachers in the 20th goal in this article is, therefore, to draw attention to early century taught as they had been taught. Those our heritage in biology education and what we can exposed to Huxley's general biology learn from it in planning a biology curriculumfor the approach brought these ideas with them to the high future. More specifically, my purpose has been to schools. identify persistent and recurrentpatterns in the his- 2. A reaction against the highly tory of biology education and to derive from them academic,special- ized courses in botany, zoology and lessons for a biology curriculumfor the 21st century. human physiology. These predecessors of general bi- ology were only slightly revised versions of col- A BriefReview of the EarlyHistory of High lege courses. They stressed technical vocabu- School Biology lary, taxonomy and morphological detail. If they were at all appropriate,it was only for col- The first general biology course in American high lege-bound students. Although early general bi- schools began in 1881 in Milwaukee. By 1900, seven ology courses suffered from some of the same other cities were teaching general biology and New problems, they became a vehicle for those who York had developed a state curriculum(Hurd 1961). advocated a more practical orientation that The major impetus for the development of general would address the needs of future citizens biology-as opposed to separate courses in botany, (Christy 1936). zoology and human physiology-was a textbook 3. The changing population of American high written in 1876 by Thomas Huxley and Henry Mar- schools. In the first quarterof this century, the tin. When Martin came to the United States to teach number of students attending high school in- at Johns Hopkins University, he brought with him creased dramatically,not only because of a gen- the idea of a course that would integrate the three eral population increase, but also because of a separate courses into one (Christy 1936). The idea greater percentage of young people attending spread rapidly to other colleges and universities and high school. The result was an increase in the then to the high schools. numbers and percentage of noncollege-bound The new biology courses were immensely popular. students, many of whom were children of im- By 1923, almost 84 percent of high schools offered migrants or migrants from rural to urban areas. PROLOGUE 151 Many educators believed that general biology processes, problem-solving skills, design and anal- was more appropriate than rigorous academic ysis of experiments, and the relationship between courses for these students, particularly if it was theory and empirical knowledge in biology. The oriented to the practical, civic, economic and third refers to the personal development and fulfill- human welfare aspects of biology. ment of the individual student through the study of biology, its aesthetic, vocational, health and cogni- Patterns from History tive benefits. The fourth, the social aim, refers to the Since 1900, many biologists, science educators, interactions between biology and society and the teachers, administrators and textbook authors, by need to prepare citizens to live in a society in which themselves or in committee, have listed aims (some- scientific and technological advances in biology affect times two dozen or more) for biology. Determined their daily lives. researchers have sifted through this vast array of Although these four major aims have dominated aims statements to reduce them to a small number of biology education throughout its history, the em- categories. The classification systems themselves phasis given to each has changed in response to his- vary, although often only in terminology, but they torical and social changes (Rosenthal 1986), as can be can all be reduced to four major aims: shown by two examples. The first biology courses were primarily knowl- Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/52/3/151/44509/4449067.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 * knowledge, edge-oriented. This was followed by a period of * methods, greater emphasis on the personal and social needs of * personal and students, partly in response to the dramatic popula- * social (Table 1). tion changes in the early decades of the century, as The first aim refers to knowledge of the theories, described earlier. A number of textbook titles of that concepts and facts of biology and the ways in which day reflected the new emphasis, although it is diffi- biologists organize knowledge. The second refers to cult to know to what extent it affected actual class- the methods biologists use to acquire knowledge, the room practice. Table 1. Comparisons of categories of aims for biology education. an Christy, 1936 McKibben, 1947 Bybee, 1977 Jacson 1978 Fraser, 1978 Yager, Rosenthal SpecificTopics Majorfacts, and l Knowledge | principles,concepts Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge K Applicationto daily comprehension life Useful Information Intellectual preparation Scientific methods Mental of thinking discipline/ Methods Process skills, Methods Scientific Method of science and scientists Scientific ReligiousReligious ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~habits/attitudesManual~ skis~ Personal Aesthetic' Attitudes and needs Appreciation Appreciations interests Personal MoralTraining Interestsand Hobbies Career CO9n Health style education/ Vocation Practical Personal awareness l Culture Culturalawareness Practical/ (the humanistic, Philosophical, Economic philosophical, historical and Social needs Social sociological, social aspects Citizenship economicand of science aspects of o cec Conservation/Conservation/ ~~~~~~~~politicalscience) Environment 152 THE AMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER, VOLUME 52, NO. 3, MARCH 1990 The curriculumreform of biology education in the many pulls in different directions, it is perhaps not 1960s was a result of the rapid growth of science and surprising to find that many attempts to reform bi- technology after World War II in the climate of the ology education failed. Cold War. A need for more scientists and engineers Publichigh schools grew out the academies, which was identified and emphasis was placed on knowl- were primarily college preparatory institutions, so edge and methods. The so-called "second wave of early high school courses, including biology, were reform"in the 1970s, in a climate of social unrest and strongly influenced by the colleges and universities. reform in the United States, attempted to increase Early biology courses and textbooks were only the emphasis on the personal and social needs of slightly watered-down versions of those used in col- students. leges and universities (Rosen 1959).The requirement Despite changes in emphasis among the four for high school students to complete 40 written labo- majoraims, research has shown that knowledge has ratoryreports was first instituted before 1900by Har- been the predominant theme in biology education, vard University. In California,enrollments in biology not only in stated aims, but, even more, in actual increased rapidly after 1915 when the University of classroom practice (Ogden & Jackson 1978; Del Californiawithdrew support for botany, zoology and Giomo 1969; Bybee 1977; Bybee & Kahle 1982). Dis- human physiology in favor of general biology Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-pdf/52/3/151/44509/4449067.pdf by guest on 26 September 2021 satisfactionwith the emphasis on pure knowledge is (Christy 1936). not new. For example, in 1891, Campbellcomplained This influence on high school biology continued that ". the pupil is filled with information in re- through teacher training, entrance requirementsand gard to science . .. only in a few exceptional schools participationin curriculumcommittees and projects, is he . taught to think for himself" (quoted in although the trend has been for increased indepen- Christy 1936, p. 174). And, in 1910, Galloway said, dence of the high schools from college