The Role of Form and Function in the Collegiate Biology Curriculum
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AMER. ZOOL., 28:619-664 (1988) The Role of Form and Function in the Collegiate Biology Curriculum WILLIAM V. MAYER Professor of Biology Emeritus, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80302 INTRODUCTION ductory courses have come about slowly Form and function are usually regarded and largely independently in various col- as essential, but routine, items in a curric- leges and universities. This does not mean ulum. They seem less important now than that guidelines for improvement did not before the rise in interest in molecular biol- exist. It does mean they went largely ogy and ecology. Those of my age group unheeded. To understand the climate for can recall the morphological drudgery of change one needs to examine activities that introductory zoology that involved draw- have been underway for close to a century ing, with a 4-H pencil, typical representa- designed to improve the caliber of biology tives of the various animal phyla and label- programs. To this end one must review the ing their parts with parallel guidelines and work of committees, commissions, and properly printed names. The aim of such studies that looked at the status quo and a course seemed to be to produce these made recommendations. The following illustrated sheets rather than to under- section highlights the more significant stand either the organisms or relationships efforts focused on the biology classroom. among them. I plodded through these ster- ile and boring assignments knowing that A BRIEF REVIEW OF STUDIES ON somewhere along the line, in later courses, INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY I would be introduced to content that would Many efforts have been made to place synthesize this mass of detail and lead to a objectives in some kind of orderly pattern. conceptual understanding of morphology Attempts to delineate cognitive and affec- and its application to the living world. Later tive objectives for biology can be traced to I was to find this a vain hope. Ultimately I the ancient Greeks, see Moore (p. 483). had to make my own synthesis. However, serious study of the subject in Fortunately the days of the dissect, look, the United States can be traced to about draw, label and memorize type of labora- 1890 according to Hurd (1961, p. 9). tory are drawing to a close. The formal- Hurd's work is a major, but little known, dehyde smell and the lanolin covered hands contribution to biological education, appli- are less a requirement for biology than in cable to all levels from elementary school the past hastened, perhaps, by the obser- through college. Its value as a source of vation that formaldehyde is carcinogenic. generalizations about the content of a col- As a graduate assistant in the formalde- legiate biology course is due, in part, to the hyde and shark era I found myself exposed early congruence of curricula in secondary several times a week to barrels of preserved schools and undergraduate colleges. At the specimens in the atmosphere of isolation turn of the century almost every student and privacy given the laboratories of dis- who graduated from high school contin- section in science halls. Changes in intro- ued education in a college or university, 619 620 WILLIAM V. MAYER making the major objective of secondary the students were to examine the external schools one of preparing students for anatomy of animals. In addition to study higher education. Prior to 1900 only 3.8% of the general form, regional parts and of the school population aged 14 to 17 years symmetry were also to be stressed. The was enrolled in secondary schools and there approach was basically comparative, with were about 2,500 high schools in the United one animal compared to others of the same States. By 1900 the number of schools had species to determine points of variation and increased to 6,005 and 8.4% of the 14 to compatibility together with comparison 17 year old age group was enrolled in high with other types. Simple physiological school, with enrollment of girls exceeding experiments were also to be a part of the enrollment of boys by 25%. In New York curriculum. Laboratory work was consid- State, between 1896 and 1900, 82.5% of ered an essential and students were to be high schools taught botany, 70% physiol- subject to both a written and laboratory ogy, 42.5% zoology and 10% biology, so test. The Subcommittee on Physiology that a variety of opportunities in the bio- suggested a one semester course in each of logical sciences were readily available to anatomy, physiology and hygiene with an students. As high schools were essentially emphasis on practical work that stressed college preparatory they reflected colle- the mechanics of physics and chemistry of giate biases in their curricula. Colleges the body. This committee separated phys- themselves were spared examination. The iology from botany and zoology, which it significant early literature regarding intro- regarded as sciences of description and ductory collegiate courses varies from non- observation, and placed it more with chem- existent to sparse. However, what was istry and physics as a science of experi- going on within the college of the time is ment. reflected in the curricula of secondary schools. It would not be unfair to note that In 1896 the National Education Asso- the study of secondary school biology cur- ciation's Department of Natural Science ricula of the period is also a study of intro- Instruction was organized. The president, ductory collegiate biology in the absence Charles E. Bessey, was concerned that sci- of usable data concerning collegiate intro- ence should be something more than accu- ductory courses. The criticisms and sug- mulating facts. More attention was to be gestions for improvement focused on the given to the classification, arrangement and secondary schools were, by and large, as generalization from facts. In short, the applicable to the collegiate introductory development of what was termed a "judi- course, if not also to the entire collegiate cial state of mind." This approach was con- curriculum. firmed by a science committee sponsored by the National Education Association in 1898 under the Chairmanship of E. H. Reports of the National Education Association Hall of Harvard. This 1898 committee Concern about the quality of biology expressed the opinion that the minute education initiated a series of studies of anatomy of plants or animals or specialized secondary curricula that now span almost work of any kind would be premature and a century. The first significant study to con- out of place in a high school course of one cern itself with the life sciences was that in year in length. Rather, the work should 1893 when the National Education Asso- confine itself to the elements of the subject, ciation formed a Committee on Secondary the principles and methods of thought. School Studies, also known as the Com- John M. Coulter, Chairman of the Sub- mittee of Ten. This was headed by Charles committee on Botany in Secondary Schools, W. Eliot, President of Harvard University. severely criticized the common practice of Subcommittees were formed to deal with examination and recitation on the gross specific disciplines and, for the teaching of structure of flowering plants accompanied zoology, the subcommittee emphasized by herbarium observations. He felt these form and function. While the outline of superficial and restricted and even an irrel- the year's course was essentially phyletic, evant presentation of biological science. By THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 621 extension, his recommendations could mental discipline approach to learning was apply to similar practices in the zoology rejected by psychologists soon after the turn class. of the century, laboratory work in a sur- These studies at the secondary school prising number of institutions still today is level represented an early attempt to conducted for its value for developing develop both cognitive and affective objec- "mental discipline." The last decade of the tives for education in the biological sci- 19th century also focused on a shift away ences. Then, as now, there was little study from a natural history approach to what of science courses at the collegiate level might be called "pure" botany and zoology due, in part, to the resistance on the part whose major emphasis continued to be of collegiate content specialists to any morphological. One must distinguish interference with the way they interpret between studies and implementation. The their disciplines. However, collegiate assumption cannot be made that teaching faculties then, as now, were expressing deep practices or course curricula immediately concern regarding the inadequate prepa- respond to committee recommendations. ration of students entering college. In 1895 Periodically, committees are formed to the National Education Association report on the state of education and most appointed a committee of 24, consisting of of these reports are read and filed, rather 12 university scientists and 12 high school than acted upon. teachers, to consider college entrance stan- dards. The major objective of this com- mittee was to explore ways in which sec- Recommendations of the ondary schools could do their legitimate American Society of Zoologists work as schools of the people while, at the The American Society of Zoologists in same time, furnishing adequate prepara- 1906 made recommendations for improv- tion to pupils intending to continue their ing the teaching of zoology in the high education in colleges and universities. The school. Among these recommendations was subcommittee on zoology reported in 1899. that a full year of zoology be taken by the Its members unanimously opposed the student at secondary school and that it be textbook method of teaching zoology in given for college credit for those continu- which "a large amount of information ing their education. The content outline about animals is acquired thereby in a lim- for a year's work in high school zoology, ited time, and a minimum of attainment as recommended by ASZ, was: and preparation is demanded of the 1.