This study involved a comparative analysis of reforms in the organization and structure of curricula and instruction in science education in the United States during the last decades of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A review of literature of these periods revealed similar concerns and goals for science instructional reform in schools. With the use of primary and secondary sources from these decades, a comparison of the conditions surrounding the reform movements was made. The author explored such concerns as educational norms, aims, values, customs, curricula content, instructional methods, psychological bases and their relationships with the technological and scientific cultures of the times. This comparison characterized common factors associated with the two reform movements. A historical characterization of the two reform periods identified relationships and responses of science education reform to social, educational, scientific, technological, and economic influences. These relationships and responses represent some of the common factors that late-nineteenth century and late-twentieth century reform movements in science education share. The author determined that although the terms, phrases, and jargon used by late-nineteenth century science education reformers sound similar to those used today, the reform efforts are not as similar as they seem. Different meanings of reform terminology used by educators of the two time periods resulted in science education means and goals that are distinct for each period, although the terminology used to describe these ideals sounds and appears very similar. This study shows how science education reforms in the late-nineteenth and late-twentieth centuries responded to the world of which they were a part, and how under apparent similar conditions, responses of reformers appear similar, but in reality are different. / Ph. D.

One of the most visible contemporary issues in higher education is the question of academic change. In seeking a more comprehensive understanding of academic change, scholars and practioners alike have directed their attention to the causes and consequences of curricular change. The movement toward a more systematic study of academic change is most apparent in the study of four year colleges and universities but current scholarship about the decision to change academic programs and curriculum in the community college is, for the most part, speculative. Three research questions guided this study: (1) What are the sources that influence the decision to change academic programs and curriculum in the community college? (2) What are the processes that led to a decision to change academic programs and curriculum in the community college? (3) What general theory of curriculum in community colleges can be developed on the basis of the findings of the first two questions? An inductive research methodolgy was most appropriate for this study and the case study method was selected as the research procedure for a number of reasons but most importantly because it was suited to the generation of new theory for it is a methodology used to generate new theory. The focus of the study was an urban, multi-campus community college. The study examined two changes in academic policy initiated at the institution: the decision to adopt an open-entry open-exit instructional methodology for technical-occupational programs and the decision to adopt a set of uniform general education requirements for occupational and transfer programs. This case study research employed four major phases: (1) collection of the data; (2) analysis of the data; (3) presentation of the data; and (4) presentation of the findings. The research relied on three major sources of data: (1) interviews; (2) documents, and (3) field research. The analysis of the data involved the identification and categorization of relevant variables to determine emerging patterns in the data.

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