The Impact of the New Curricular Programs on College and University Students and Professors

Abstract

A most common question asked by college and university professors of biology is is going to be the impact of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study on college biology? For me to suggest that the BSCS program has had or will have an impact on college biology would be highly presumptuous. It is my view that each professor must answer this question in his own way with his students. What one professor might be looking for in freshmen students entering their first biology course would perhaps be completely different from what each of you might be interested in seeing in these first-year college students. It is also important to keep in mind that preparing students for college biology courses was never a major goal of the BSCS program. College and university professors and administrators have become quite concerned in recent years over not only the numbers of students coming to their campuses but also the kinds of students entering their classes. They ask, has happened to the scholarly undergraduate who sat at the feet of the professor and recorded in his notes the words of the authority for recitation at a later date? Allow me to admit that this was not my generation, but I often hear older professors relating their experiences in the classrooms of years gone by. Concerning my generation, they might ask, has happened to the frat rat who spent his time on beer busts, blanket parties, and cheering his team on to the New Year's Day bowl games? This is the generation with which I prefer to be associated. Certainly there is no single answer to these questions, but it is my purpose here to give some insight into several aspects of the educational experiences of today's secondary students that are just beginning to have an impact on the attitudes of today's college students toward their education. If possible, I would like to step back from the curriculum study in which I am most involved, the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, and take a larger overview of what is just starting to happen in the field of curriculum development and how it will be affecting the colleges and universities in the future. I would like you to consider the impact of the major curricular development programs that are currently evolving toward a K-12 program in science. I am referring here to the elementary level programs, such as the AAAS program, Science A Process Approach, and the Science Curriculum Improvement Study being developed at the University of California. At the junior high level, I am referring to the Introductory Physical Science project (IPS), the Earth Science Curriculum Project (ESCP), and the Intermediate Science Curriculum Study (ISCS). At the senior high school level, I am referring to the Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC); the Chemical Bond Approach project (CBA); the Chemical Education Material Study (Chem Study); the Harvard Project Physics Program; the High School Geography Project (HSGP); and, of course, the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS). These programs are rapidly falling into place and are being accepted by the public schools at an ever-increasing rate across the country. It is most important that college professors be well informed of these programs and of the nature of their impact on American science education. It will certainly not be possible to go into the details of each of these programs in this short presentation, but it will be possible for us to take a close look into the guidelines and objectives of several of these programs as decribed by those who have prepared the materials.