3.3b Project Synthesis

Project Synthesis was an effort to examine the state of science education by studying a number of research studies funded by the National Science Foundation. The studies included "The Status of Pre-College Science, Mathematics and Social Science Education: 1955-1975," "Case Studies in Science Education," and "1977 National Survey of Science, Mathematics and Social Education." Project Synthesis also examined the third set of results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. In addition to these reports the staff of Project Synthesis also examined journal articles in science education, and analyzed the most widely used textbooks because of their influence on the science education. The synthesis group was comprised of 23 science educators, who were divided into five subgroups: biological sciences, physical sciences (including earth science), inquiry, science/technology/society, and elementary science.

Project Synthesis attempted to develop a set of goals that were broad and could be generally accepted, had meaning to a number of audiences, were unbiased, limited in number, had unifying features, could lead to operational definitions in terms of student objectives, and finally could be useful for policy statements. The project adopted the term "goal cluster" to define the major goals, and in collaboration with the leaders of the five groups, the project staff identified four goal clusters in which student outcomes could be grouped as follows: the individual, societal issues, academic preparation and career choice. The four goal clusters of Project Synthesis are presented below.

Using the goal clusters as an organizational structure, desired states were generated for biology, physical science, inquiry, science/technology/society and elementary science, a synthesis was made of the actual states of science education, and finally recommendations were made based on the discrepancies between the desired and actual states of these areas.

Biology

The findings and recommendations of the biology group reflect the general considerations of the other groups. The biology group recommended that the desired biology program should focus on humanity as a part of nature by suggesting the following goals:

• to understand human beings as a distinctive organism;
• to appreciate the universal human need to be in touch with our own nature, and all of nature.
• to learn to live in harmony with nature and to minimize the dissonance between social and natural environments.

The biology group felt that the goals of biology should result in courses, topics or modules that emphasized environmental or ecological studies, human anatomy and physiology, health, especially related to alcohol, drugs, tobacco and disease, and future studies in terms of the quality of life. The biology group pointed out that even though science educators recommended (in the literature) that science teaching should emphasize a broader perspective, emphasizing the relationship of science and technology, societal and cultural dimensions, personal and humanistic values, decision and problem solving skills, the current state of biology teaching emphasized vocabulary and the narrow use of student objectives (normally content oriented). Very little attention was given to general goals such as inquiry, problem solving, or the nature of human beings.

Physical Science

Each of the subgroups found discrepancies between the desired state and the actual state of science teaching. The physical science group, for instance, found that course content was narrow, with little emphasis on the relationship of the content of the science to personal or social issues. They found that most of the emphasis was placed on goal cluster III (academic preparation), and recommended that physical science courses be modified to provide experiences related to personal needs, societal issues and career awareness. They recommended a greater emphasis on interdisciplinary programs, designing science programs that would enable students to pursue topics of interest to them, and the inclusion of socially relevant problems in physical science.

Inquiry

The inquiry group reported that the desired state of inquiry was rare. This group defined the desired state of inquiry to include emphasis on three themes: science process skills, nature of scientific inquiry and general inquiry processes. An interesting finding of this group was that although science teachers favor the use of inquiry practices, there was very little inquiry in actual classrooms. This group pointed out that many teachers found inquiry methods difficult to manage, and that equipment and materials were not readily available. The inquiry group, after considering many alternatives, recommended a reformulation of the traditional views about teaching scientific inquiry. They recommended that all student outcomes with respect to inquiry should be responsive to individual differences, personal goals and community wishes.

Science/Technology/Society

The science/technology/society (STS) group examined science education goals in relationship to the interface of science, technology, and society. They identified several areas of concern that need attention in the STS domain: energy, population, human engineering, environmental quality, utilization of natural resources, national defense and space, sociology of science, and effects of technological development.

The work of Project Synthesis was fundamentally carried out by science educators. We will return to other recommendations of Project Synthesis when we examine the middle/junior high and high school science curricula in the next chapter. We now turn our attention to Project 2061, which was published in 1989, and represents the recommendations of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Many of its recommendations were proposed by scientists, although the report itself was written by science educators.