Man: A Course of Study (MACOS)

Description, Analysis and Evaluation

by M. Emir Ruzgar
April 2015

Executive Summary
This report is an assignment for Spring 2015 semester of CI 501 course offered by Mark
Dressman, PhD. Overall, it aims to scrutinize a very innovative social sciences curriculum
especially for its time- known as Man: A Course of Study, abbreviated and referred henceforth as
MACOS. In so doing, it includes three parts: Description, Analysis and Evaluation. In Description
part, I simply describe MACOS with non-evaluative terms. In Analysis part, I try to see how
MACOS addresses the five considerations, which framed the discussions in CI 501. Finally, in
Evaluation part, I provide my summative assessment of MACOS.

Part I: Description

Curriculum field is indeed an interdisciplinary one. To illustrate, consider Bruners remarks
on how psychology can be more fruitful when it is in connection with other disciplines:

Psychology, and you will forgive me if the image seems a trifle frivolous, thrives on
polygamy with her neighbors. Its marriage with the biological sciences had produced
a cumulation of ever more powerful knowledge. So, too, have its joint undertakings
with anthropology and sociology. Joined together with a variety of disciplines,
psychology has made lasting contributions to health sciences and, I judge, will make
even greater contributions now that the emphasis is shifting to the problems of
alleviating stress and arranging for a communitys mental health. What I find lacking
is an alignment that might properly be called the growth sciences. Any field of
inquiry devoted to assisting the growth of effective human beings, fully empowered
with zest, with skill, with knowledge, with taste is surely a candidate for this sodality
(Bruner, 1966a).

In a similar manner, curriculum field should employ its neighbors to understand its subject
matter better. Therefore, I think that a description of a curriculum should employ sociology and
history to understand the underlying conditions of its formation and this, I judge, will lead to a
better understanding of that particular curriculum. As a result of this, I start my description of
MACOS by trying to understand its history and sociology.

After World War II, two victorious countries, USSR and USA, were in a competition with
each other. The underlying reason for their competition was to see whose system, capitalism or
communism, was better then the other. This competition has led to a tension what is known as
cold war. One of the arenas of cold war was space race in which two aforementioned countries
thrive to claim superiority to other. On October 4, 1957, USSR launched first man-made satellite
to Earths orbit, the result of which was devastation to USA. Feeling defeated by USSR, USA
sought out ways to improve its education system to raise better scientists and attract them to

research institutions so that USA could claim superiority on USSR. The result of this was the
search for governmentally funded initiatives on education, including but not limited to curriculum
renewal or improvement projects, in USA. In this manner, National Science Foundation granted
money to several curriculum development projects, one of which was MACOS. Bohan and
Randolph (2009) has this to say on this issue:

In the post-Sputnik era, the federal government poured considerable money into
education. Indeed, Urban and Wagoner report that the most significant
consequence of Sputnik was not the space race or the attention to academic studies,
but the impetus it gave to federal financing of public education

In short, MACOS is a curriculum development project with a funding of $7.4 million ($4.8
million for development between 1963-70; $2.8 million for implementation and $326.000 for
evaluation) by NSF in post-Sputnik era. In addition, MACOS is a social studies curriculum designed
for middle grade students, especially for fifth graders (GAO, 1975). In the general sense, MACOS
aims to get students to think like scientists as Bruner puts it The schoolboy learning physics is a
physicist, and it is easier for him to learn physics behaving like a physicist than doing something
else (Bruner, 1960, p. 14). It also aims to get students to learn how to survive as underlined by
GAO MACOS uses studies of selected animal groups and the Netsilik Eskimos a simple human
society- to explore the roots of human social behavior. (GAO, 1975).

In this process, three questions recur throughout:
1. What is human about human beings?
2. How did get that way?
3. How can they be made more so?

In pursuit of these questions five humanizing forces that let man to evolve are highlighted:
1. Tool-making,
2. Language,
3. Social organization,
4. The management of mans prolonged childhood and
5. Mans urge to explain (Bruner, 1966a).

MACOS is developed through the light of Bruners theory on learning/instruction. Bruner
believes:

To instruct someone is not a matter of getting him to commit results to mind.
Rather, it is to teach him to participate in the process that makes possible the
establishment of knowledge. We teach a subject not to produce little living libraries
on that subject, but rather to get a student to think mathematically for himself, to
consider matters as an historian does, to take part in the process of knowledge-
getting. Knowing is a process not a product (Bruner, 1966b).


Bruner goes on to say:
Unless the learner also masters himself, disciplines his taste, and deepens
his view of the world, the something that is got across is hardly worth the effort
of transmission (Bruner, 1966b).

These remarks of Bruner show us that MACOS gets its students in activities to
explore relative realities to construct their own. Hence, it is reasonable to conclude that
MACOS aims to make students social scientists, not just apprehender of social studies
knowledge.

Bruner, in addition, believes that a student of any age is capable of learning any
subject. Bruner underlines: Any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually
honest form to any child at any stage of development. (Bruner, 1966b, p.31). Although
this hypothesis does not necessarily deny theoretical framework of another infamous
educational psychologist, Piaget, it leads to quite different implications in that it denies a
part of Piagets point that pupils need to mature to perform some mental operations. In
fact, Piaget asserts that there are four stages of cognitive development, namely:

Sensorimotor (0-2 years),
Preoperational (2-7 years),
Concrete operational (7-11 years),
Formal operational (11- years).

In this framework, for instance, a child needs to be at formal operational stage to
perform abstract reasoning. Conversely, Bruner posits that a child can be instructed in
any subject requiring any cognitive development regardless of his/her biological age.
Bruner adds, however, that the instruction needs to be recurred so that learner can
master the task at hand. Implication of Bruners point on MACOS is the idea of spiral
curriculum where students have same tasks repeatedly, but with a deeper focus on each
consecutive visit.

Overall, Bruner points five goals (ideals) for MACOS:
1. To give our pupils respect for and confidence in the powers of their own
mind,
2. To give them respect, moreover, for the powers of thought concerning the
human condition, mans plight and his social life,
3. To provide them a set of workable models that make it simpler to analyze
the nature of the social world in which they live and the condition in which
man finds himself,
4. To impart a sense of respect for the capacities and plight of man as a species,
for his origins, for his potential, for his humanity,
5. To leave the student with a sense of the unfinished business of mans
evolution (Bruner, 1966a).

In order to achieve these goals, MACOS consists of 60 lessons, grouped into 6

sections:

1. Introductory Lessons: What's in a Lifetime? (4 days)
2. Salmon (8 days)
3. Herring Gulls (10-12 days)
4. Baboons (18-30 days)
5. The Netsilik Eskimos at the Inland Camps (30 days)
6. The Netsilik Eskimos on the Sea Ice.

The general scheme of MACOS is like this:

The materials of MACOS materials include films, filmstrips, slides, records, booklets,
charts, games, and displays.
Films
The life cycle of the Salmon (10 min.),
Herring Gull Behavior (10 min.),
Animals in Amboseli (20 min.),
The Younger Infant (10 min.),
The Older Infant (10 min.),
The Baboon Troop (22 min.),
Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees (29 min.),
Fishing at the Stone Weir (30 min.),
Knud (31 min.),
Life on the Tundra (14 min.),
At the Caribou Crossing-Place (29 min.),
Autumn River Camp, Part I (26 min.),
Autumn River Camp, Part II (32 min.),
Winter Sea-Ice Camp, Part I (32 min.),
Winter Sea-Ice Camp, Part II (30 min.) and

The Legend of the Raven (20 min.)

Booklets
Life Cycle,
Animal Adaptation,
Information and Behavior,
Innate and Learned Behavior,
Natural Selection,
Structure and Function,
Salmon,
Herring Gulls,
The Observers Handbook,
Animals of the African Savanna,
Baboons,
The Baboon Troop,
Baboon Communication,
The Field Notes of Irven DeVore,
A Journey to the Arctic,
Songs and Stories of the Netsilik Eskimos,
Antler and Fang,
The Arctic,
On Firm Ice,
The Many Lives of Kiviok,
This World We Know,
The True Play,
The Data Book and
7 Additional Animal books.
Other Materials
Words Rise Up (2-12 records),
In the Field (2-7 records),
5 filmstrips,
23 maps, posters and photomurals,
3 educational games and
Eskimo cards
Teachers Guide
9 books containing background information, bibliography, suggested lesson
plans, suggested topics for inservice workshop sessions, and strategies for
evaluation (770 pages). (Education Development Center, EDC, 1971).


Part II: Analysis

Five considerations are Epistemological, Ontological, Teleological, Organizational and
Political.

Epistemologically, knowledge is what students construct, not something to be transmitted
to them. In this sense, knowledge is relative, not concrete. This nature of MACOS pinpoints to a
discussion in epistemology. On one hand, we have positivists. To them, there is concrete reality
(ies) in the world to be discovered. This is to say, if there were no human beings to grasp these
realities, they would still be there. In other words, the world is simple and there are scientific
laws waiting to be discovered that govern the world. (This point is well expressed by Vienna
Circles manifesto, A Scientific Worldview by Neurath). On the other hand, there is a school of
thought believing that truth is always relative and the world cannot be explained by a number of
scientific laws since the world is not simple; instead, it is complex. MACOS is in the favor of latter
one.

Ontologically, teachers are not the ultimate source of knowledge. Their goals are to
stimulate pupils enthusiasm to learn, to initiate pupils cognitive abilities to construct their
relative truths. In this sense, teachers are not masters, but guiders and facilitators of students
learning. Students are not blank slates to be inscribed with knowledge; rather, they are little
social scientists aiming to shape their own world.

Teleologically, MACOS aims to get students to think like social scientists so that they can
become good problem solvers who will able to solve real-life problems of their society in which
they live.

Organizationally, MACOS is a spiral curriculum. Students get a chance to have deeper look
at the same issues over and over again, which in turn can decrease the amount of students
forgetting and let them to master abilities at hand.

Politically, MACOS is very liberal. It highlights evolution of man to see what is human about
human beings. The content is unchristian to conservatives. Therefore, MACOS is also debatable.

When considering MACOSs relation to three curricular approaches, namely learner-
focused, content-focused and critical pedagogical, I am inclined to state that MACOS is very
learner-centered since, as I stated in epistemological analysis, it treats its students as
constructers of knowledge, not blank slates. In addition, it gives a chance to students to deal with
same topics in a repeated manner so that they have the opportunity to master. This would not
be case in a content-centered curriculum. It should also be mentioned that the notion of MACOS
to get students to think like social scientists is another sign of learner-centered curriculum.


Part III: Evaluation

The strength of MACOS comes from its learner-centered approach. Put another way,
MACOS is very student-friendly. Mastery of a strictly predefined content, mere apprehension,
and rote-memorization are not the cases for MACOS. In fact, EDC made an evaluation of MACOS
in which they state that: Children acquired and retained a significant amount of information and
developed an increased ability to reason. (EDC, 1971). In addition, boy-girl differences
traditionally associated with schoolwork disappeared in MACOS. Also, children were more ager
to read the booklets of MACOS. A student MACOS states: I like the booklets. They took a very
hard question and broke it up See, they had a question at the beginning and then they had a
story to tell you about the question. (EDC, 1971). Teachers who implemented MACOS gave
positive comments on it, too. For example, a former elementary teacher has this to say: It was
the single best thing that happened to me while a classroom teacher -it revolutionized the
teaching and learning for our 5th and 6th grades. (Falkenstein 1977:98 cited in Wolcott, 2007).

Another important strength of MACOS is in its innovation to use a wide variety of materials.
MACOS does not just rely on the books as mediums of teaching. In fact, its use of films, filmstrips
and other technological mediums is ground breaking for its time. A student of MACOS makes this
point clear: You learn more about it than reading. You see how they act and in reading you just
the pictures. (EDC, 1971). In addition, Dr. Denton of Seattle Pacific University made this remark
in an interview:

Whats the best but lesser known education program that youve seen or heard
about?

In the 1960s, Jerome Bruner and colleagues designed a social science curriculum
called Man: a Course of Study (MACOS). Unlike traditional school curricula, often
characterized by textbooks and a box of teaching guides, MACOS emphasized
instruction through multiple modalities and engaging experiences. Students
observed Native Americans in the Arctic, explored foreign habitats, and listened
to animal sounds. It was designed to emphasize the process of learning over
content. One of its central goals was to transform students into social scientists.
Students spent most of their time analyzing, comparing, and synthesizing ideas
and concepts. Examining MACOS today shows that it included a number of
effective instructional practices years before they appeared in educational
literature, including multiple intelligences, formative assessment, and higher-
order thinking. (Patterson, 2012-2013).

I believe that the weak spot of MACOS lies in my political analysis of it. Since the content of
some of its films were very unacceptable to some, MACOS came under heavy fire. Critics say: It
(MACOS) exposes young children to adultery, bestiality, cannibalism, infanticide, and senilicide
(Dow, 1975). Maybe the best expression of views of opponents of MACOS is the words of
Representative John Conlan:

MACOS materials are full of references to adultery, cannibalism, killing female

babies and old people, trial marriage and wife-swapping, violent murder, and
other abhorrent behavior of the virtually extinct Netsilik Eskimo subculture the
children study.

Communal living, elimination of the weak and elderly in society, sexual
permissiveness and promiscuity, violence, and other revolting behavior are
recurring MACOS themes.

This is simply not the kind of material Congress or any Federal agency should be
promoting and marketing with taxpayers' money [p. H2585; see Falkenstein
1977:146-147 cited in Wolcott, 2007].

Overall, I consider MACOS to be one of the finest examples of curriculum development
history. Its learner-centered approach would let students to inquire rather than rote-
memorization. In turn, students would not be like fishes who are said to discover the water last.
It provides a wide range of materials so that it gives teachers flexibility. The variety of materials
including films and other technological medium was ground breaking for its time and it increased
students motivation and learning. However, developers of MACOS could have tried to a find a
way to arrange its so-called provocative and inappropriate content so that they could have dealt
with criticism, which led to their programs cancellation.

References

Bohan, C. H. & Randolph, P. (2009). The Social Studies Curriculum in Atlanta Public Schools during the
Desegregation Era. Theory & Research in Social Education, 37:4, 543-569. DOI:
10.1080/00933104.2009.10473410.
Bruner, J. S. (1960). The Process of Education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. S. (1966a). The Growth of Mind. Occasional Paper No. 8.
Bruner, J. S. (1966b). Toward a Theory of Instruction. Cambridge, Mass.: Belkapp Press.
Dow, P. B. (1975). MACOS: The Study of Human Behavior as One Road to Survival. The Phi Delta Kappan,
Vol. 57, No. 2, 79-81.
Education Development Center. (1971). Man: A course of study. Washington, DC: Curriculum
Development Associates.
GAO (1975). Administration of the Science Education Project "Man: A Course Of Study" (MACOS). Report
to the House Committee on Science and Technology By The Comptroller General of The United
States.
Patterson, G. (2012-2013). Emerging Leader: David W. Denton. PDK International, Vol. 94, No. 4, p. 94.

Wolcott, H. F. (2007). The Middlemen of MACOS. Anthropology & Education Quarterly,Vol. 38, Issue 2,
195-206.