A Different Sort of Time: The Life of Jerrold R. Zacharias, Scientist, Engineer, Educator

Goldstein, Jack; Lin, Herb

doi:10.1119/1.17285

Cited by 6 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…With "first team" scientists (Dershimer, 1976, p. 33) rather than educationists now ready to develop science teaching materials, NSF precollegiate education budgets began to rise; and after the Soviet launching of Sputnik I on October 4, 1957, they skyrocketed (Goldstein, 1992). Although improving science education had been part of NSF's mission since it was created in 1950, its initial investments in precollegiate education had been minimal.…”

Section: Discipline-based Research In the 1950s And 1960smentioning

confidence: 99%

Contested Terrain: A History of Education Research in the United States, 1890–1990

Lagemann

1997

Educational Researcher

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During the last 100 years, the history of education research has been marked by continuing contests among different groups, especially scholars of education, scholars in other fields and disciplines, school administrators, and teachers. To make sense of these contests, it is useful to understand them from a “system-of- professions” perspective in which professionalization is seen as an ongoing competition to secure jurisdiction in particular domains of human service. Viewed this way, the history of education research suggests that the development of wide support for education research will depend on surmounting the jurisdictional challenges that have heretofore precluded sustained agreement about the methods and focus of the field.

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Section: Discipline-based Research In the 1950s And 1960smentioning

confidence: 99%

Contested Terrain: A History of Education Research in the United States, 1890–1990

Lagemann

1997

Educational Researcher

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“…74–77; Lutkehaus, ). Zacharias was especially interested in using movies as aids for teaching high school physics, and began to develop a series of 20‐minute films accompanied by educational materials for teachers and students (Goldstein, ). He intended these films to elicit in students an appreciation for the processes of scientific reasoning.…”

Section: Building Macosmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He intended these films to elicit in students an appreciation for the processes of scientific reasoning. Zacharias insisted that the students “have some kind of intellectual training that involved knowing [about] Observation, Evidence, the Basis for Belief” (Goldstein, , pp. 164–165; see also Ramsey, ).…”

Section: Building Macosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Science of the Savage Mind: Contesting Cultural Anthropology in the Cold War Classroom

Milam¹

2013

J History Behavioral Science

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"What is human about human beings? How did they get that way? How can they be made more so?" These three questions formed the basis of a fifth-grade social studies curriculum project developed in the 1960s called Man: A Course of Study, or MACOS. In the years between the curriculum's development in the 1960s and its controversial implementation in the 1970s, two separate sets of concerns served to problematize the use of anthropological materials in public school classrooms. On the one hand, MACOS designers were wary of the possibly racist interpretations of exploring so-called "primitive" cultures in the classroom. On the other, conservative textbook reformers objected to claims that all cultural solutions to biological problems were morally equivalent. Once MACOS earned a place in national news, it came to embody both hopes for the redemption of American democratic society and fears about the violent nature of humans, depending on one's political perspective. These mixed messages eventually undermined the long-term success of the program as public science.

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“…As a result, the eminent MIT physicist, Jerrold Zacharias—who with Oppenheimer and others had worked on the development of the atomic bomb—turned his attention to the “knowledge gap” and the teaching of science to U.S. schoolchildren. In 1956, with a modest proposal titled “Movie Aids for Teaching Physics in High Schools” submitted to the president of MIT and the National Science Foundation, Zacharias launched what became known as the Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC), headed by himself and his colleague at MIT, physicist Francis Friedman (Goldstein 1992:152). Zacharias's memo stated that “In an effort to improve the teaching of high school physics I want to propose an experiment involving the preparation of a large number of moving picture shorts.…”

Section: History Of the Development Of The Macos Project: 1956–70mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Zacharias's memo stated that “In an effort to improve the teaching of high school physics I want to propose an experiment involving the preparation of a large number of moving picture shorts. To present one subject, say physics, it is proposed that we make 90 films of 20‐minute duration, complete with textbooks, problem books, question cards and answer cards” (Goldstein 1992:152) 11…”

Section: History Of the Development Of The Macos Project: 1956–70mentioning

confidence: 99%

Putting “Culture” into Cultural Psychology: Anthropology's Role in the Development of Bruner's Cultural Psychology

Lutkehaus

2008

Ethos

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I present an intellectual history of the impact of cultural anthropology on Jerome Bruner's cultural psychology and discuss the influence of Bruner's role during the 1960s in the creation of an elementary school science curriculum based on the study of anthropology, Man, A Course of Study (MACOS). Funded by the National Science Foundation, the MACOS curriculum became highly politicized in a national science textbook controversy in the 1970s. I argue that during the 1960s, Bruner had three key experiences that influenced his understanding of the role that culture plays in learning and cognition and that thus grounded his vision of cultural psychology. These include his role in the development of the MACOS curriculum, his involvement with the federally funded Head Start preschool program, and the research conducted by several of his graduate students in Africa and the Arctic. [psychological anthropology, history of anthropology, science curricula, cultural psychology, MACOS]

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A Different Sort of Time: The Life of Jerrold R. Zacharias, Scientist, Engineer, Educator

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Contested Terrain: A History of Education Research in the United States, 1890–1990

Contested Terrain: A History of Education Research in the United States, 1890–1990

Public Science of the Savage Mind: Contesting Cultural Anthropology in the Cold War Classroom

Putting “Culture” into Cultural Psychology: Anthropology's Role in the Development of Bruner's Cultural Psychology

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