A Minimum Core Curriculum for Introductory High School Biology

Abstract

THE high school introductory biology course (often titled Biology I) is typically taught at the 10thgrade level in our country, though many schools also offer the course for more academically-oriented ninth-grade students. For a slight majority of our students, this course will be their last classroom science experience. For the remainder, it is a bridge between general science courses and advanced courses in areas such as chemistry, physics and advanced biology. Educators have debated for years about the kinds of knowledge and skills a student should gain from introductory biology. The issues of general low quality in both method and content have also been raised in several recent national committee reports such as Project 2061: Science For All Americans, developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS 1989) and Fulfilling the Promise: Biology Education in the Nation's Schools (National Research Council 1990). Historically, these discussions have been mostly content-oriented; for example, should the course emphasize cellular biology, ecology, anatomy and physiology, or evolution and diversity. Also, this course has emphasized descriptive content such as the names of organisms, parts of organisms or parts of a cell, etc. (Rosenthal 1990) as well as have most teachers' and commercial examinations for this course. Other biology teachers have been more concerned with the development of thinking or science process skills (Costenson & Lawson 1986), with the developing basic biology concepts such as interdependence, with relating biology concepts to technology and society (McInerney 1986) and with how the course is taught (Lawson 1988). Should the course be more uniform? Is it desirable, for example, that all introductory biology courses attempt to give the student some minimum experiences in the way of knowledge, skills and attitudes? Would having some minimum experiences and a common core of curriculum in the biology course help prepare students for further coursework and/or provide important life skills? McInerney (1986) has argued that, although there is currently precious little diversity in the 30 high school biology textbooks that are commercially available for this course, it would not be all that bad if the texts contained quality programs. However, he notes that the vast majority converge on mediocrity, pedestrian representations of biology that are guaranteed to offend no one; toward low-level intellectual skills; and toward even more information for its own sake. Who should make the decisions as to what goes into a textbook? Increasingly, professional education associations are making recommendations regarding science curriculum. Since professional biology educators are in the best position to determine the curriculum for introductory biology, their recommendations could be formalized through professional associations such as NABT. More than a year ago, the NABT Teaching Standards Committee was asked by the NABT Board of Directors to develop some recommendations for a minimum core curriculum in the introductory high school biology course. The idea was not to dictate a specific curriculum for the year but to suggest minimum experiences that all these students should have. Nor were minimum performance standards envisioned, such as might result in a kind of standardized national examination. Rather, the concern was twofold: