DOCUMENT RESUME ED 179 446 SO 012 146 AUTHOR Parsons,, 1. W. And Others TITLE Report of the Anthropology CuriiCulum Study e Project-Research Progral. ,SPONSAGENCi National Science Foundation, Washington, E.C. PUB DATE 70 NOTE 396p. EDRS PRICE MF01/PC16 Plus Postage. 'DESCRIPTORS *Anthropology: Behavioral-Science Research; COgnitive Objectives; *CuriidUlum Evaluation: Educational Needs; Educational Objectives:. Edicational Practice7 Educational Research; Ethnography:. Elialuation Criteria; Evaluation Methods; *Prograu Evaluation; Secondary Education; *Social Studies; Student Teacher Relationship; Teacher Attitudes IDENTIFIERS Anthropology Curriculum Study project ABSTRACT The s,tudy evaluated amInthropology4Curriculum Study Project course, uPatlerns in Human Historyou used with high school students in a one ye t field testysituation. Ethnographic and 'cognitive components of the curriculum were examined. The specifiC . objectiVe of the research was to examine the behavioral effects on. students, teachers, and-schools of the.cutriculum materials andto" ddapt the Materials to student and teacher needs prior to dissemination_gf.the cuiriculum. The methodology involved observing curriculilik_ye allong 1,200 tenth grale students in eight urban high schools in northern California,becoming'knowledgclable about social organization-patterns in a public high school, and evaluating cognitive'learning among puOils using the,curriculum. Evaluation of the ethnographic studies component focused on'teacher and.student psychological and cultural orientation, cOmmunity context, ,student-teacher interectionand responses Of school personnel to innovative programs. Measurement of ccgnitiig achievement among students who participated in the eoursecentered on discussion of cd49.4tive research strategies as they relate to learning complex 'concepts, procesiing social data, identifying status positions, and on applying researth in these areas tothe, anthropology curriculum. Recommendations for curriculum improvemnt included that teachers be better prepared to deal with anthropology content and that ethn-ic studies be incorporated into the anthropology curriculum. It,was concluded that anthroTology course experiences increased studeat ability to draw inferences about societies from artifacts and written anecdotes and to process and appry ileas from anthrcpology to social realities. Appendices are included. (DB) Reproductions supplied by EDFS are the best that can be made from the original document. ************************************************************4********** SFP U S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO- DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN- ATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRE- yet SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY REPORT of the A ANTHROPOLOGY CURRICULUM STUDY PROJECT-RESEARCH- PROGRAM "PERMISSION TOREPRODUCE TAS MATERIAL HAS BEENGRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATION-L RESOUPCES INFORMATION CENTER(ERIC)." I. SG ./ ANTHROPOLOGY CURRICULUM STUDY PROJECT-REiEARREPORT The simultaneous publication ofa new course of curriculum materials ,11 : and of ,a research teport on the use bfthat course is an unusual godurrence. negotiation and of publicat19n r ?nly the complexities of publication.. Contract .11 itself could hav,e toroduced the coincidence tliat Patterns inHuman History, the Anthropology CUrriculum Study Project course,and the report of the. 8. s . , 'Afthropp/ogY Curriculim Stu 'Project-Researdh'Program would be published in the same-year. At least two consequences followed froththis fact: . , 1) the,ACSP-RP staff had to cope with apre-publication version of Patterns, which had na had a final editing andwhich hadio be duplicated for use - in the Research Programschools; 2) the advantage of tais situation was'the opportunity to use the experience ofthe Acspor classes for*thaking a number 4,1 of changes inportions'of the Course that hd not been pieviousytested. The setting ofthe Research Program within the total work of ACSP it described in the ACSP Report(see Boggs, pp. 31 ff). The research herein ., . , and carried out by the ACSP-RP staff: Dr. T. W.- i reported was planne IParsons, Senior Resea ch Consultart;Dr. Morton S. Tenenberg; Senior , Assistanti. Burma Haiblum, JuniorAsis- I , Associate; C. Will Ekhoff, Senior ..'.; trint; Margaret Schmicit,-ecretary. Malcolm Collier, Dirmctor ACSP . 4 40 41. 51 5. P CONTENTS Part One. Chapter 1.,IntroduCtion .2 Research Population hrt Two: Ethnographic Studies 3 Introduction 4 Design of the Ethnographic Research Ark 5 The Community Context t. .6 School SOtting . 7 Awcho-Cultural Orientations' J .of School Personnel 8 The Structure of Interaction Patterns 0 s 9 Responses to Innovation .111 10f/Implicationsand Recommendations A- PartsThree: Cognitive Studids 11 ,The Relationship of Conducted Redearch to the ACSP Course ,12 The Learning of Complexoponcepts 13 Processing Social Datat, 14 Identifying'StatuslPositions 1.5 Implicationce and Recommendations C. Appendixes 4 V a r V PART ONE t. "4144t I - 4. 91:!' lqii 'Chapter .1 A Plans to add a research program to project cUrriculum development work were part of the ACSP\proposal submitted to NSF in 1968..The research pro- gram, conceiVed by Fred Gearing, was intended to implement the "high fidelity, 4ide amplification"use of ACSP curriculum materials, notably of the one- , semester course, Patterne in Human Histoty.. These effortswere conceived is action-research which would "bring togetheipersonnel having special research and other_campetencies to initiate . a set of research and 4 other.tasks" tb examine the behavtoral effectson students, teachers, and schools of the use of Patterns, and to produce adaptations of thecourse which .. .. , would make it more useful within local variations id cultural diversity Id . o, in-student and teacher characteristics. *N.441 The expectation was that this researchprogram would be. carried oat in the eighteen monthp from January 1, 1969 to June 30, 1970. Several eventd, at several different points in that period of time, lead toa modification --c-of-the plan as originally coneeived. The first of these was a spending ceiling which necessitated an acrois-the-board modification. AnOther wis the fact that plans to "reproduce lal_ssiaptations_were_dropped-in cause of Gearing's resignation as ACSP Co-Director. Finally, and within the period of the research itself, local school disrupiions (described in Chapter 9) lead to further'curtailmentnotably, and regret, ably, in research into the effects of different teaching styleson the un- folding of the course. Afurther source/of distraction should be noted. Because of:delays A in the signing of the publication contract for Patterns,course materials were available to the repearch program staff only in mimeographed form, 1 tr a Sr . c, a and unassembled. As a result, the_staff:spent days facilitating the repro- duction anCl, distribution of the materials. .The materials had yet to be given a "final" editing, a factnwhich did na,make muchdifference with the student materials but did make a difference with the teaching plan \ which was much motT 0.fficult to f011ow in its mimeographedform than in the)formfinally uE:d inthe printed .edition. It should also be recorded thatoinformation from theACSp-Research Program staff helped significantly \ to reshape some of the lessons\notably in Parts I and III. , Following on plans worked out during.the spring andsummer of 1969, Patterns in Human History was taught by sixteen credentialed teachers toap- proximately 1,200 tenth-grade pupils in eight senior:high schools. Two of these schools are in Sunnydale,* California; the remaining sixare located in Castlemont, California. The students involved exhibited an enormous range in initial capabilities and, as a grOup, were quite typical ofipupil , populations found in many large urbancktersin America. Thus Patterns .was not used by "selectts" groupt of students, but rather with pupils rep- resenting a broad range of prior experience, ethnic backgrounds, andpre- viously acquired skills and knowledge. The sections which follow (1) Ethnographic Studies: "The Ethnography of an Ethnically Mixed School," and (2) Cognitive Studies: "The Cognitive IMPact of the Coursr UpOn Pupils," summarize the two major portions of ACSP-RP completed during the 1969-70 school year. Ethnographic Studies, summarizes the research conducted at one project school during the whole 1969-70 school year and is one of the few studiesof the social Organization of a public school carried out byla ;rained ethnographer. This ethnographic *Place names, school names, and names of school Personnel, are fictitious. study provides contextual data within which Ninterpretthe cognitive stad- ies. In addition, it provides important dataon school organization, role dynamics, and social perception. The second section is a summary, ofre- search on pupils' cognitive learning during theirstudy Of Patterns in Spring, 1970. Data from both the cognitive andithnographicstudies pro- vide significant.insights into the impewt offPatterns.in Human Historx * .upon teachers and pupils. 1 8 Chapter '2 RESEARCH POPULATION _FIELD SITES Two northern ealifornia urban -% school districts, Sunnydale And Castle- .e mont, were selecteS for the ACSP-RP inthe use of Patterns in Human History. Both schOol systems serveareas exhibiting wide variation in ethnic back- ground and economic stability, insur4ngfrom the start