ABSTRACT
Wilbur Jackman developed a course of natural science which he presented at regional and national meetings of teachers and published as Nature Study for the Common Schools. This chapter discusses Jackman's and other selected influential texts in order to understand the nature study idea, its complexities and its contradictions, and its perceived relevancy within the pedagogical context of educational reform and the context of changing ideologies regarding nature and the human relationship with the natural environment. Aware of rapidly changing political, economic and social conditions, along with extraordinary technological advances, educators throughout the world, like Grasby, were increasingly interested in wide ranging reforms to educational theory, methods of teaching and the subject matter of the curriculum. Nature study advocates all stressed the importance of natural science as a topic to be introduced to elementary schools. The subject matter was to be taught through careful observation and problem solving.
