The History of Science Education and Nature of Science

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The History of Science Education and Nature of
Science

• Dr. Jeanelle Day

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Origins of Inquiry-Oriented Instruction

• Use of laboratory unheard of until mid-1800s.
  Physical materials and specimens, though rarely
  used, served to verify lectures/book information.
  
• By mid-late 1800s, labs were extremely popular
  as they were believed to be useful in
  disciplining the mind.
• Mental discipline came from popular
  psychological theory that
• Human mental behavior was compartmentalized
  (logic, memorization, observation)
• Such mental behavior could be enhanced by
  exercising these faculties
• These faculties, when developed, would function
  in all life situations.
• Theory was used to justify the use of abstract,
  meaningless, laborious tasks during instruction
  to exercise and strengthen the mind!

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Origins of Inquiry-Oriented Instruction

• As this theory lost favor among psychologists,
  the emphasis in schools shifted away from rote
  tasks and toward an effort to present meaningful
  information, develop positive attitudes and
  interests in science, and develop useful
  reasoning skills.
• By 1898, the NEA made the following
  recommendation
• The high school work should confine itself to
  the elements of the subjectfull illustration of
  principles, and methods of thought.
• The 1910 report by the Central Association of
  Science and Mathematics Teachers suggested
• More emphasis on reasoning out than
  memorization.
• More emphasis on developing a problem-raising and
  problem-solving attitude among students.
• More applications of the subject matter to
  personal and social issues.
• Less coverage of territory the course should
  progress no faster than students can go with
  understanding.
• Yet no methods of how to accomplish this were
  suggested!

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Origins of Inquiry-Oriented Instruction

• In 1916, John Dewey addressed the NEA and argued
  that science is primarily the method of
  intelligence at work in observation, in inquiry
  and experimental testing that, fundamentally,
  what science means and stands for is simply the
  best ways yet found out by which human
  intelligence can do the work it should do, ways
  that are continuously improved by the very
  process of use.
• As an instructional method, Dewey suggested a
  series of events called a complete act of
  thought.
• Sensing the problem or question.
• Analyzing the problem.
• Collecting evidence.
• Interpreting the evidence.
• Drawing and applying conclusions.
• It would take another 40 years before this view
  of the Nature of Science would make its way into
  large-scale science curriculum movements, or not
  until the NSF sponsored curriculum development
  projects in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a
  response to Sputnik.

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In the 30 years between 1952 and 1982, there was
a shift in society towards a dependence on
technology and science.

• In 1952, production of technology was important.
• In 1982, the major concern became educating all
  citizens to participate in the highly
  technological world produced by the previous
  generation.

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Today, we have a richer understanding about the
processes associated with the growth of
knowledge. Shapere (1984) discovered three
things about the nature of science.

• 1. The standards used to assess the adequacy of
  scientific theories and explanations can change
  from one generation of scientists to another.
• 2. The standards used to judge theories at one
  time are not better or more correct than
  standards used at another time.
• 3. The standards used to assess scientific
  explanations are closely linked to the
  then-current beliefs of the scientific community.

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Themes of Science

• Science as a way of thinking
• Beliefs, curiosity, imagination, reasoning, cause
  and effect relationships, and self-examination
  and skepticism, objectivity and open-mindedness.
• Science as a way of investigating
• Hypothesis, observation, experimentation,
  mathematics (i.e. Bacons Mathematics is the
  door and the key to science).
• Science as a body of knowledge
• Facts (directly observable can be demonstrated
  at any time), concepts (name, definition,
  attributes, values, examples), laws and
  principles (examples of concepts), theories
  (explain underlying patterns and forces and never
  become fact or law), models (no distinctions
  between models, hypotheses, and theories
• Science and its interactions with technology and
  society.
• Each influences the other.

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Scientific theories are often confused with
scientific fact. It is important for teachers to
understand that

• All scientific explanations are not equal some
  ideas are more important than others.
• A scientific explanation can rise and fall from
  grace in the scientific community.
• Criteria exist for judging or evaluating
  scientific explanations.
• A description of the rational evolution of
  scientific explanations is possible.

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It is important to remember that knowledge about
science and scientific knowledge are two
different things.

• Knowledge about science is knowledge of both why
  science believes what is does and how science has
  come to think that way.
• In a curriculum that relies on this idea,
  interactions among science, technology, and
  society are more relevant.

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On the other hand,

• Scientific knowledge claims--facts, hypotheses,
  principles, theories--are learned on the basis of
  their contribution to the final form models of
  knowledge.
• How knowledge came to exist is not an issue in
  this form of curriculum.

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The Nature of Science

• In the NSES, NOS is divided into three
  categories
• The Scientific World View
• Scientific Inquiry
• The Scientific Enterprise

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Learning in science and cognitive development in
general are conceived as processes in which old
ideas, concepts, and meanings are replaced by new
ones.

• Cognitive development is a process involving
  conceptual changes. The challenge for science
  teachers is how to design instructional
  strategies that will promote the evolution of
  students naive views into the more sophisticated
  scientists views - Carey (1985)

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Conceptual change teaching model is different
from other models of teaching science because
there is the recognition that all learning begins
with and is subsequently influenced by the prior
knowledge of the student.

• Hanson (1958) put it this way What we see is
  determined by what we know.

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Theories tend to determine what we observe.
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There are two faces of science

• Science as a process of justifying
  knowledge--what we know.
• Science as a process of discovering
  knowledge--how we know.

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In large part, students are bombarded with tasks
that teach what is known by science without
learning about the discovery process of science.
Teaching the what without teaching about the
how runs the risk of making science instruction
incomplete.

• Kilborn (1980) suggests that all too often,
  science instruction is taken out of context and
  presented without the critical background
  material necessary for an understanding of the
  meanings or transitions of science.

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If teachers do not fill in the gaps for students,
they will fill them in themselves, more often
than not, with ideas and self-constructed
theories that are incorrect and lead to less
success in science at higher grade levels. This
makes science inaccessible to many young students
(Novak Gowin, 1984).
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It is important to remember that facts derive
meaning from theory, not vice versa.

• As science educators, we must convince
  students that change is a normal element of the
  growth of scientific knowledge.

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When we neglect to present science as a process
of revision and substitution of knowledge claims,
we run the risk of

• Developing in students the perception that
  scientific-knowledge growth is governed by the
  addition of new ideas, facts, and theories to old
  ones and
• Portraying science as an activity in which
  scientists always seem to agree or have a
  consensus.

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It is fundamental that sound instruction seeks
ways to partition knowledge claims and
establishes the relationship among the parts.
There are six models that can be used to attempt
to explain or characterize knowledge growth in
science.

• Goal-of-Science Hierarchy
• Levels of Theories
• Argument Pattern for Testing Theories
• Four Criteria for Theory Evaluation
• Triadic Network
• Tripartite Process of Observation

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Goal-of-Science Hierarchy--places theories within
a general scheme that seeks to establish
explanations and understandings of the natural
world.
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Levels of Theories
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Argument Pattern for Testing Theories (Giere,
1984) The theory is treated as a hypothesis in
which a theoretical model is making a claim about
the real world. This is a Theoretical
Hypothesis. The hypothesis is then treated as
both a contingent statement (either it is true or
false) and a conclusion of an argument. The
argument is a set of premises that lead to a
statement of a conclusion. An argument is
analyzed by testing the truthfulness of the
premises (all must be true), or by testing the
internal consistency of the set of true premises
(there can be no contradictions).
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Four Criteria for Theory Evaluation
(Root-Bernstein, 1984) 1. Logical criteria-good
theories provide sound explanations, and sound
explanations are based on logically sound
arguments 2. Empirical criteria-valid but
unexplained data or empirical facts are referred
to as anomalous data and are important in
changing the explanations of science. When enough
data exists, some scientists question existing
central theories. 3. Sociological
criteria-science does not function in isolation,
and scientists do not practice their profession
without influence from the outside. 4.
Historical criteria- ensures the growth of
scientific knowledge has followed a path that
clearly establishes correctability.
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Triadic Network of Justification
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Tripartite Process of Observation (Shapere, 1984)

• The release of information by a source
• The process of transmitting the information
• The reception of information
• A large part of what we seek to accomplish in the
  science classroom is moving students from novice
  seeing as observers or naive seeing that
  observers to informed seeing that observers.

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Now look at the handout entitled Essential
Concepts to be Covered in the Study of Evolution

• Do the textbooks you have used either in class
  or to teach cover all of these topics?

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Essential Concepts to Be Covered in Teaching
Evolution

• Dating the earth
• The Big Bang
• Fossils of different ages
• Comparative anatomy
• Embryonic development
• Comparative genetics
• Comparative physiology
• Geographic distribution
• Classification of species
• Experimental manipulation of populations under
  controlled conditions