ABSTRACT
This paper traces the history of biology as it developed from natural history into separate courses in botany, zoology and human physiology during the nineteenth century. In the early years of the twentieth century, these courses were integrated into general biology, following the model developed by Thomas Huxley. Since its inception, biology education has been characterized by changing emphasis among three primary aims: the knowledge aim, the methods aim and the personal/social aim. The degree of relative emphasis among the three aims has varied in response to historical, intellectual and social developments, including industrialization, immigration, religious movements, temperance, compulsory education, educational psychology and scientific advances in biology. A major theme throughout the history of biology education has been the continuing debates about its primary goal: whether it should be a science of life and emphasize knowledge or whether it should be a science of living and emphasize the personal needs of students and the social needs of society.
