Context

1
Context Framework for Looking at the History
of Science Education

• What phases has science education gone through
  in the past 200 years?
• Where did we start?
• How and why has the focus of science education
  changed?
• What worked? What did not work? ( why)
• Who came up with the Big Ideas?
• What role did science education play in the
  History of the U.S.?
• Which of our current ideas in science education
  are rooted in the past?

2
Early to Mid 1800s

• Science versus Classical Studies
• What are classical studies?
• Who was educated?
• What was the purpose of education?

3
Arguments for the Replacement of Classical
Studies with Science

• The assault on classical education was launched
  by scientists, not educators per se.
• Proponents of change argued that science should
  replace the study of classical languages in the
  curriculum.
• Proposed that science concepts be derived from
  direct contact with the natural world.
• Proposed that the lab be a place where skills in
  observation and inductive reasoning powers would
  be developed.
• Successfully opened the door for the widespread
  inclusion of science in the school curriculum.

4
Influential People in this Movement

• Edward L. Youmans ( 1821-1887)
• H. Spencer (1820- 1903)
• Thomas Huxley (1825 1895)

5
Edward Youmans

• Science instruction is superior to classical
  studies because it requires a broader range of
  mental abilities.
• Science instruction should be useful and based on
  systematic observations.
• People need to understand the science in their
  lives.

6
Thomas Huxley

• Science is essential to understand the modern
  world.
• Science helps develop the mind to deal more
  intellectually with everyday life. (Habits of
  Mind)
• The source of knowledge is objects.
• Science labs are justified because they rely on
  everyday objects.

7

• Huxley advocated a program of broad primary
  school instruction that is essentially what we
  have today reading, writing, arithmetic, art,
  science, and music. We take this for granted now,
  but it was an opportunity unobtainable in England
  during Huxleys youth.
• The basic form of nearly every American college
  curriculum is exactly what Huxley advocated more
  than 100 years ago two years of more liberal
  basic studies followed by two years of what we
  now call upper-division work. This was a novelty
  in 19th century England, where Oxford and
  Cambridge focused on education in the classics.

8
Herbert Spencer

• He emphasized the need for more independent
  thinkers in school. (This parallels the rise in
  democracy in our nation.)
• He believed in presenting materials at the level
  the child could understand. (What is the
  modern-day term for this?)
• Discovering relationships is useful because it
  makes the learner forever independent of the
  authority of the teacher.

9
Science began to be thought of as a part of the
curriculum.
By the 1850s
10
Contrast Classical Education with modern
Science Education
11
Assignment

• Read for next Tuesday -
• DeBoer Chapters 2 3
• Remember to keep working on your BIG IDEAS
  diagram/table.
• Remember to check web page for possible handouts.
  You may want to print the powerpoint outline to
  make notes on during class next week.