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experiments that emphasized scientific methodology. Most of the present experimental programs assume that problem solving is a concomitant of rote manipulation.

Finally, it was recommended that greater effort be made to utilize the potential of television in bringing the applications of physical science into the classroom. It was the consensus that this medium of communication might well be the key to keeping courses in the physical sciences up to date.

REPORT ON THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE IN ILLINOIS
Allerton House Conference on Education

GROUP IV: PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, 1957

MEMBERS OF GROUP IV PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Blue, Mr. James E., Principal, West Senior High School, Rockford
Burnett, Dr. R. Will, Professor of Education, University of Illinois, Urbana
Catlin, Mr. V. G. [deceased], former Head of Science Department, Proviso Town-
ship High School, Maywood

Challand, Dr. Helen J., Head of Science Department, National College of Education, Evanston

Fuller, Dr. Harry J., Professor of Botany, University of Illinois, Urbana (Member until October 1956)

Hollmeyer, Mr. Lewis H., Assistant Superintendent, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Springfield

Nelson, Dr. Theodore A., Teacher of Chemistry, Lyons Township High School and Junior College, La Grange

Rodebush, Dr. W. H., Emeritus Professor of Physical Chemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana

Rusnak, Mrs. Earl J., former State Board member of Illinois Congress of Parents and Teachers, 2528 Sheridan Road, Evanston Sternig, Mr. John, Principal, Central School, Glencoe

Chairman: Dr. Harvey I. Fisher, Chairman of Department of Zoology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

CHAPTER 1. OBJECTIVES OF SCIENCE EDUCATION

Each science teacher has the dual responsibility of helping all youth understand themselves and their world through an understanding of the broad field of science, and of locating, challenging, and inspiring the talented youth toward studies and possible careers in science.

In this discussion the common and individual educational needs of youth, which science can help to meet, are considered to be the proper objectives of science teaching in the schools of Illinois. More specifically, science teaching has responsibilities in

1. Helping youth understand, appreciate, and use the methods of science with special emphasis on the experimental approach.

2. Helping youth understand, wisely use, and develop an appreciation of their natural environment.

3. Helping youth understand the major laws of science.

4. Identifying youth talented in science and helping them develop their interests and capabilities.

5. Stimulating an interest in science as a career and helping youth make an informed choice of careers.

6. Helping youth understand and use scientific information in maintaining personal and community health.

7. Helping youth understand man's dependence upon his natural resources and the need for using them wisely.

8. Helping youth understand that the fullest advancement of science and of mankind requires freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression.

9. Helping youth understand that science has played a major role in the development of modern society and that continued progress will be greatly affected by the further achievements of science.

10. Helping youth develop sufficient comprehension to read scientific material with profit and pleasure.

The foregoing objectives are not unique; they are generally accepted by science teachers throughout the United States, as is evidenced by many policy statements of teacher organizations. But these objectives must be achieved through sound practice. There are many reasons why the accepted objectives may not be reached. The following criticisms indicate problems that must be solved before these objectives can be achieved.

CHAPTER 2. CRITICISMS OF SCIENCE EDUCATION

IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

1. Science programs in too many schools are meager, sketchy, and hit or miss, with too much left to chance."

2. There is insufficient planning in many schools or districts to insure agreement on a total program with adequate scope and sequence. There is both omission of important material and too much repetition of other material, from the lower grades through high school.

3. There is not enough cooperation and understanding among educators at all levels, from kindergarten through college, in setting up programs.

4. Too many teachers are inadequately prepared for teaching science.

5. There is not enough competent supervisory and other in-service help for teachers.

6. Effective use is too seldom made of the wide range of resources for science teaching. Science in elementary schools is often bookish and unrelated to everyday living.

7. There is not enough awareness of the ways that science can be integrated with other activities. Science does not make its proper contribution to the other phases of the instructional program, such as health, arithmetic, and writing.

8. There is too little teacher interest in current science. Not enough teachers make an effort to keep informed on current events in science.

IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

1. Too many high-school science teachers are inadequately prepared in their subject-matter science fields to teach competently. This situation may be attributed to a number of factors, among which are the following:

(a) Some colleges and universities do not have well-balanced curricula for the training of science teachers: (1) Teachers may specialize to excess in one phase of a science teaching field (e. g., botany), with inadequate work in related fields (e. g., zoology or physical sciences); (2) the total college science work taken by teacher trainees may be subminimal; or (3) students transferring from other science curricula (engineering, agriculture, medicine) are often not sufficiently prepared.

(b) In many smaller high schools, science may be taught by (1) teachers whose primary interest and training is in other subjects, or (2) teachers who must teach several sciences, although they may be insufficiently prepared to do so.

(c) With higher salaries offered by federal and state agencies and by industry to college graduates who are science majors, an increasingly large proportion of prospective superior science teacher trainees fails to enter the teaching profession.

(d) The methods by which teachers in service are expected to improve themselves are sometimes circumscribed and unimaginative.

2. In many high schools, especially those in less affluent areas, equipment for essential library, laboratory, and demonstration work is inadequate.

3. The methods of scientific reasoning and of solving problems, and the importance of fundamental science in the intellectual history of man and as the basis of applied sciences, are too often neglected. The result is that so-called science becomes the study of technology, rather than of true basic science.

4. Courses in general science, too often crowded mixtures of odds and ends from many sciences and too frequently preoccupied with technology, are commonly superficial and educationally undesirable. General science often fails to give a satisfactory picture of the true nature of science, its methods, and its discipline.

5. There is excessive repetition in content in the teaching of science in elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, and colleges. Such repetition is likely to result in student boredom, and, as a result of the wide variation in

the training of teachers, in inconsistencies and confusions in the minds of students.

6. Although there are available some excellent high-school textbooks in the sciences, there are too many inferior books which have been written by persons whose scientific training is at best meager and which have not been critically examined by specialists in the appropriate fields. Because of the trend toward the generalization of science, few suitable high-school texts for specific sciences (zoology, chemistry, botany, etc.) have been published in recent years.

7. The novelty and appeal of some limited fields of technology (e.g., aviation science) sometimes exert such attractive force that such courses are accepted as substitutes for required sciences.

8. Students often receive inadequate training in writing about scientific phenomena, or indeed about any other subject. Part of this results from excessive use of objective examinations and from lack of a sufficient number of required essay-reports on laboratory experiments, etc.

CHAPTER 3. PROGRAMS OFFERED IN SCIENCE

IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Elementary schools in Illinois offer widely diversified science programs. Schools vary from those with little or no science to some with excellent organization and teaching. Science in the lower grades (kindergarten through grade 6) is generally diffuse and unorganized. It is usually based on children's interests and depends on teacher enthusiasm. In the upper grades (7-8) there is more effort to produce a definite science curriculum. Many schools present a fairly comprehensive science curriculum in the upper grades.

There is a current trend in the direction of more definite organization of a science curriculum at all levels. Such organization is based on the content of a full program in science. The allocation of specific topics is either based on grade levels or on divisions primary (kindergarten to grade 3) and intermediate (grades 4 to 6)—in terms of pupil readiness.

The science curriculum usually appears in practice in three ways: (1) incidental experiences based on children's daily interests and activities; (2) experiences integrated or correlated with other subject areas (such as social studies, arithmetic, or language); or (3) specific science activities which are organized and taught as separate units. The use of textbooks in science may appear in any or all of these three ways. It is the responsibility of the teacher to check regularly against the science outline for her grade or division to insure that her children are having the experiences expected.

In schools where the seventh and eighth grades are organized as self-contained classrooms (under the direction of one teacher), the science program may well be a part of the plan outlined above. Where the seventh and eighth grades are organized on a departmental basis, science is usually taught as a separate subject. In this instance a two-year program of science is usually offered.

Among the important justifications for including science in the elementary school program are the following: (1) Science phenomena affect the child's every waking hour. He has a right to an understanding of the world about him and to guidance in securing valid answers to his many questions. (2) The child's interests in the world around him form one of the most powerful possible motivations for learning to read, write, and quantify. Thus science, integrated with other aspects of the work, improves the quality and efficiency of the total instructional program. (3) Science in the elementary school provides a needed basis for the more specialized courses which come later. Elementary school science is not organized as chemistry, physics, botany, or biology, though the content of the specialized sciences is used in the solution of problems real to the children. The content of elementary school science may be organized under such headings as

1. Living things

2. The earth

3. The universe

4. Matter and energy

5. Man's use of science

In the lower grades, experiences under these five headings would be introductory in nature. In a specialized seventh- and eighth-grade science program the science work would be definitely organized under the five headings in such

a way that each major topic received more detailed attention. Such a two-year program then serves the purpose which has traditionally been assigned to ninth-grade general science.

IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Illinois high schools typically offer the following courses: general science, biology, physics, and chemistry. Larger high schools may offer other courses, such as advanced biology, aeronautics, and physical science (often designated by other names, such as "consumer science"). Some school systems offer a three-year sequence of general science in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades. Many smaller secondary schools do not have the enrollment or staff to offer all of the sciences at one time. It is typical in such schools to offer chemistry and physics in alternate years or to give only chemistry or physics. In other schools only physics, biology, chemistry, or general science may be offered.

Science requirements vary in Illinois high schools. Some schools permit students to graduate without any science. Some require one year. Probably few schools require more than one year of science. Assuming that the typical requirement is one year of science and that national trends in enrollment are representative of Illinois schools, we must conclude that the typical Illinois high-school student takes general science or biology, or both. Only a small percentage take physics or chemistry.

The sciences offered by a particular school are less important than which sciences are actually studied by each student. Nationally, total enrollment in every science has gone up since 1900 and tends to match the growth in total highschool enrollments. Enrollments in physics have about tripled since 1900, and chemistry now enrolls about ten times the number it enrolled at the turn of the century.

But data concerning such rising total enrollments can be deceiving, for the nation's population has also increased greatly since the turn of the century. Percentage enrollments show more clearly what has happened to enrollments in the separate sciences. In 1954, according to a study of the U. S. Office of Education, about 70 percent of the total of the nation's ninth-graders took ninth-grade general science. In the same year 72.6 percent of the nation's tenth-graders were taking biology. Of the total of the nation's eleventh-graders. 31.9 percent studied chemistry, and 23.5 percent of the nation's twelfth-graders enrolled in physics.

The U. S. Office of Education biennial surveys of education (which provide data from which trends can be seen) present enrollments as percentages of the total high-school population rather than of particular grades. Thus, the 31.9 percent of the eleventh-graders who took chemistry in 1954, as given above, would be listed in the biennial survey as 5.4 percent of the total high-school population.

Using these data, we find that percentage enrollments in general science changed slightly from 18 percent in 1922 (the first year for which U. S. Office of Education data are available) to 21 percent in 1949.

Biology enrolled 1 percent of the total high-school population in 1910 (the first year for which data are available) and 18 percent in 1949.

Physics enrolled 19 percent in 1900, 9 percent in 1922, 6.3 percent in 1934, and 5.4 percent in 1949. These data clearly show that percentage enrollments in physics have dropped greatly since the turn of the century.

Percentage enrollments in chemistry have remained static since 1900 (7.7 percent in 1900, 7.6 percent in 1934, and 7.6 percent in 1949).

Another way of looking at enrollment trends is to consider what percentages of the nation's total youth population aged 14 to 17 (whether in school or not) were enrolled in various science courses formerly and at present. In 1900, only 8 percent of the 14- to 17-year-olds were enrolled in the public schools of the nation. In 1949, 64 percent were so enrolled. In 1957 the public and private high schools of the nation together enroll more than 80 percent of the nation's youth aged 14 to 17. But what of science enrollments of this total youth population?

In 1900, 1.5 percent of the nation's total youth population aged 14 to 17 were enrolled in physics. In 1949, 3.5 percent of this total youth population were so enrolled.

In 1900, 0.6 percent of the nation's youth of these ages were enrolled in chemistry. In 1949, 4.9 percent were so enrolled.

In 1949,

In 1910, 0.08 percent of the nation's youth were enrolled in biology. 7.5 percent were enrolled in biology. Enrollments in zoology and botany as separate courses are not included in these figures. Zoology and botany, which enrolled large numbers in 1910 and before that year, were almost nonexistent in 1949. So the trend in biology percentage enrollment represents in part a shift from the separate disciplines to the broad course in biology. However, because the data for zoology and botany versus biology are not comparable, no trends can be stated for increased or decreased enrollment in the biological sciences.

The foregoing data on the percentages of the total youth population enrolled in the public schools and in various sciences show that the public schools today are actually providing science instruction to a much higher percentage of our total youth than ever before. Only in physics, in fact, are schools enrolling lower proportions of the students in school than they did at the turn of the century. This has occurred during a time when the nation's need for physical scientists has steadily increased.

Observation of instruction, of classrooms and equipment, of science programs, and examination of the textbooks used in the state indicate the following typical courses. However, individual teachers place different emphases on the various phases of their subject; these differences may be great or slight.

General science

The student surveys the broad fields of physical and biological science. This may include some aspects of chemistry, physics, physiology, genetics, entomology, zoology, botany, health, meteorology, geology, and astronomy. The attempt is to select content and activities that will acquaint the student with a wide range of natural phenomena and our present scientific knowledge concerning them. A major emphasis is on practical matters: health, conservation, science in the home and community, etc. A second emphasis is on understanding natural phenomena, technological developments, and how things work, ranging all the way from the functioning of the human body to mechanical and electronic devices. A third emphasis, that looms large in the enunciations by both teachers and texts, but with little evidence of attainment, is the development of increasingly reflective and critical powers of thought. The extensive coverage, superficial treatment, and swift pace of the course inevitably preclude any significant possibility that this third objective will be achieved. There is little or no time spent in individual student laboratory experimentation. The typical general science course may be described as a brief and highly descriptive treatment of natural phenomena with emphasis on application and only superficial attention to the fundamental laws and principles of the basic sciences from which the content is taken.

Most of the teachers of Illinois are acquainting youngsters with only a few of the more obvious facets of man's physical nature and of the world around him. Such superficial treatment does not provide lasting and functioning knowledge. The liberalizing values inherent in the disciplines of science are not, therefore, realized to any significant extent.

Biology

Many students who enroll in biology also take general science. For others, biology is the only science studied. In general, in biology the student is given some understanding of the more important and interesting kinds of plants and animals. Most commonly the instruction emphasizes life functions rather than details of the kinds of living things, but without sufficient laboratory and field experiences. However, there is more attention to details, processes, basic principles, and concepts than in the typical general science course. With a year devoted entirely to biology, more time is available for each phase of the subject. What is taught and the amount of time devoted to each aspect vary greatly with the text and with the teacher. When biology is well taught it is a sound and valuable course and should be included in the high-school curriculum. Frequently, however, the biology course is used as a course in which weaker students are placed to satisfy whatever science requirements may be in effect. The obvious occurs; the content and general attitude are lowered to the level of the poorer students. The effect of this situation on the better students-the ones really interested, or who could be interested, in entering the field as professional scientists or teachers-is disastrous. The effect on the attainment of the proper objectives of all science teaching for all students can be equally disastrous.

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