SAPA (Science A Process Approach) - ASWATHY S NAIR

            This program was the response by the American Association for the advancement of science of the post-Sputnik crisis in science education, developed by the AAAS commission on education.

            SAPA-included a kit of materials for children from kindergarten through sixth grade. The program was funded by NSF and published commercially Xerox Corporation. Despite evidence that  SAPA was more effective than traditional teaching methods, the program never achieved the market penetration that had been hoped.

            Undoubtedly, the curriculum reform movement of the past fifteen years has resulted in considerable improvement in the quality of science instruction in the majority of schools on this continent. However, among the many questions being raised about the new project courses is this one to what extent do they actually enable students to develop a broader and more valid understanding and appreciation of science as practiced by scientists. Statements of philosophy or objectives underlying these courses include claims for ”scientific inquiry” , ”learning by discovery” and “teaching  the process of science”. Inspite of increased emphasis on laboratory activity, these claims appear to be achieved through these new courses only to a limited degree, and this usually on chance basis or as a by product.

             To enable students to understand science and scientists better, teachers must give continual and systematic emphasis to the process of science during their instructional activity. Knowledge or content can always be learned in a classroom in isolation from the inquiry which give it birth, where as the strategies of inquiry are always contingent upon the problems to be investigated. To enhance a student’s comprehension of how scientists work and scientific knowledge evolves a science curriculum must be provided in which selected concepts and the associated processes of inquiry are integrated. To be sure, there should be many ways to achieve this integration, hence there are potentially many process-approaches to science.