Should Science Teaching Involve the History of Science? An Assessment of Kuhn’s View

Thomas Kuhn draws the distinction between textbook history of science and history of science proper. The question addressed in the paper is whether Kuhn recommends the inclusion of distortive textbook history in science education. It is argued, pace Fuller, that Kuhn does not make normative suggestions. He does not urge the teaching of bad history and he does not aim to deceive the scientists. He highlights the significance of the retrospective history of the textbooks as a condition for the practice of science. If science is to be seen as a practice and not as a set of propositions, then textbook history is instrumental in establishing and expanding the new paradigm. The other kind of history, the history of science proper, can only be taught as part of the students’ general education and not as part of science education.     

分科科学课程与综合科学课程内容结构的对比研究

科学课程的内容组织结构分为“纵制式”和“横制式”两种。前者以“不断分化”为主要组织原则,是传统分科科学课程采用的方式,不利于一般学生的学习迁移。“横制式”以“综合贯通”为主要原则,同时兼顾“不断分化”,是综合科学课程采用的方式,这种组织结构方式能够充分地反映出综合课程的优势。     

Success in Science Learning and Preservice Science Teaching Self-Efficacy

This study examined relationships between conceptual understanding, self-efficacy, and outcome expectancy beliefs as preservice teachers learned science in a constructivist-oriented methods class. Participants included 49 preservice elementary teachers. Analysis revealed that participants increased in self-efficacy, outcome expectancy, and conceptual understanding. Engaging preservice teachers in hands-on, minds-on activities and discussion were important contributors. Participants reported that they would be inclined to teach from a constructivist perspective in the future. One implication from this study is that increasing the quantity of science content courses that preservice elementary teachers are required to take may not be sufficient to overcome their reluctance to teach science if some of their learning does not take place in a constructivist environment. In our teaching, we have tried to integrate pedagogy with learning science content.     

Computer Science in Liberal Arts Colleges

When a liberal arts college decides to include computer science as one of its academic disciplines, a number of questions arise. What is an appropriate curriculum? What sort of laboratory support does this new discipline need? How does a small liberal arts school attract, retain, and evaluate faculty in this area? Do computer science faculty become a separate department or remain joined with mathematics or some other discipline? In short, what must be done to put computer science on equal footing with mathematics and other scientific disciplines? This paper addresses these questions.     

Science teachers' views of professional development

Seventy-five science teachers from schools across Australia were interviewed in 1991 as part of the Science Education Professional Development Project (SEPD), a Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) funded Project of National Significance with a brief to develop a strategy to enhance the professional development of science teachers. At the time of interviewing there was considerable discussion about the implementation of a new classification, the Advanced Skilled Teacher. A major purpose of this Award Restructuring was to offer a career path for classroom teachers. In order to retain good science teachers and to encourage them to continue in the important role of classroom teaching it is crucial to understand and to meet their professional development needs. But what does it mean to develop and grow as a science teacher? What constitutes quality professional development? What do science teachers expect from professional development activities? This paper explores science teachers' expectations in relation to professional development and examines the implications for policy.     

人文社会科学与人文社会科学学

人科学、社会科学整合为统一的人社会科学并建立人社会科学学科是目前学科建设的必然走向，学科内部各分支学科的有机联系，科学内部分化与综合的运动发展规律决定了这一点，章就此方面进行了粗放的论证分析并提出了建立人社会科学学的些许构想。     

Nature of Science and Science Content Learning

Besides viewing knowledge about the nature of science (NOS) as important for its own value with respect to scientific literacy, an adequate understanding of NOS is expected to improve science content learning by fostering the ability to interrelate scientific concepts and, thus, coherently acquire scientific content knowledge. However, there is a lack of systematic investigations, which clarify the relations between NOS and science content learning. In this paper, we present the results of a study, conducted to investigate how NOS understanding relates to students’ acquisition of a proper understanding of the concept of energy. A total of 82 sixth and seventh grade students received an instructional unit on energy, with 41 of them receiving generic NOS instruction beforehand. This NOS instruction, however, did not result in students having higher scores on the NOS instrument. Thus, correlational analyses were performed to investigate how students’ NOS understanding prior to the energy unit related to their learning about science content. Results show that a more adequate understanding of NOS might relate to students’ perspective on the concept of energy and might support them in understanding the nature of energy as a theoretical concept. Students with higher NOS understanding, for example, seemed to be more capable of learning how to relate the different energy forms to each other and to justify why they can be subsumed under the term of energy. Further, we found that NOS understanding may also be related to students’ approach toward energy degradation—a concept that can be difficult for students to master—while it does not seem to have a substantive impact on students’ learning gain regarding energy forms, transformation, or conservation.     

科技哲学视阈下的科学教育

科学技术从根本上改变了人类的生存方式和发展模式。它是人类能够更好地生活的基本保证,但并不等于生活的全部智慧。科学技术虽然给人类带来了高度发达的物质文明,却不能为人类提供生活何以值得过下去的理由。该问题的解决必须依靠科学技术哲学思想引领下的科学教育。文章从系统哲学、生态哲学和技术哲学三个维度,对如何提高和发展科学教育提出了初步的设想。只有在正确的科技哲学观的指导下,科学教育的质量才会得以提高,全民科学素质的提升才可能得以实现,人们才会获得更好的生活。     

论科学与文明

科学技术不仅创造社会的物质文明也创造人类的精神文明。科学是人类智慧、理性和文明的重要标志，并以其理性功能而成为失去社会行为理性化的强大的精神力量。普及科学知识，提高全民族的科学文化素质，是精神文明建设的一个根本任务，也是现代化建设和实现新世纪宏伟蓝图的根本保证。     

回到整体的历史科学

"回到马克思"有着不可避免的解释学情境,我们应该且必须回到整体的马克思。回到整体的马克思的关键在于找到马克思全部思想中最高的、一元的基础范畴。根据马克思本人的论述,我们认为,其学说中最高的一元范畴就是历史,回到整体的马克思就是回到整体的历史科学。历史科学不仅具有整体性、前提性,而且具有后哲学和后科学的性质。历史、实践、人是历史科学的三个关键词。回到整体的历史科学,可以帮助我们更好地看待关于马克思的诸多解说,有利于我们在科学与人文的统一中把握马克思学说的独特规定性,对具体科学也有着十分重要的方法论启示。     

科学教育的重要途径—非正规学习

非正规学习在培养学生科学素质方面具有正规学习不可替代的重要作用。了解非正规学习的特点、规律和怎样影响人的科学素质的形成和发展对当前我国政府倡导的大力普及科学教育,提高全民,特别是未成年人的科学素质具有重大意义。非正规科学学习不仅能为学生提供丰富的认知冲突和社会互动机会,使他们建立起更加完善的知识结构,而且还能提高他们的科学论证能力。非正规学习是发展学生科学素质的必经之路。     

经济社会的发展呼唤社会科学的春天

本文根据个人的学习体会，结合柳州实际，侧重谈了两个层面问题：其一，为何要高度重视哲学社会科学在经济社会发展中的作用；其二，如何发挥哲学社会科学在经济社会发展中的作用。     

Values in Science: An Educational Perspective

Science is not value-free, nor does it provide the only model of objectivity. Epistemic values guide the pursuit and methods of science. Cultural values, however, inevitably enter through individual practitioners. Still, the social structure of science embodies a critical system of checks and balances, and it is strengthened by a diversity of values, not fewer. Science also exports values to the broader culture, both posing new values- questions based on new discoveries, and providing a misleading model for rational decision-making. Science teachers who understand the multi-faceted relationship between science and values can guide students more effectively in fully appreciating the nature of science through reflexive exercises and case studies.     

论基督教与科学的兼容性

从根本上看,基督教不是科学的反对性力量,而是与科学具有一定的兼容性的。这一兼容性体现在四个方面：第一,基督教自身体系与近代科学产生和发展内在要求的一致性;第二,清教精神气质与科学发展内在要求的一致性;第三,基督教与科学在信仰上的一致性;第四,基督教与科学属于人类生活和文化的两个完全不同的领域,各有其功用,不会构成根本性的冲突。     

Lonergan's Theory of Cognition,Constructivism and Science Education

Recent research literature in science education, sciencecurriculum documents, and science methods texts have been highly influenced by constructivist views ofhow students learn science. But the widespread and often uncritical acceptance of constructivism in scienceeducation does not reflect the heated debate between constructivists and realist science educatorsover its underlying philosophy, and the curricular and pedagogical implications of constructivism. This paperaims to show that Bernard Lonergan's theory of cognition can inform this debate by (a) suggesting ways tosee the merit in the views of constructivists and realists and bridge the gap between them, (b) illustratinghow Lonergan's thought can be brought to bear on science curriculum documents and teaching-learning resourcesfor science teachers. Lonergan's Theory of Cognition suggests that human knowing is not a singleoperation, but a dynamic and integral whole whose parts are sensory experience, understanding, and judging.     

Teaching the Nature of Science from a Philosophical Perspective

This paper draws attention to basic philosophical perspectives which are of theoretical and methodological interest for science education, general education and curriculum research. It focuses on potential contributions philosophy class can offer if philosophy education opens up for science and for a collaboration of teachers in the context of post-compulsory education. A central educational goal is to connect basic philosophical skills with any curricular intellectual practice. This implies the possibility of crossing disciplinary boundaries. Hence, the present paper questions the disciplinary rigidity of education and aims at bridging the artificial gap between teaching philosophy and teaching science in order to enrich the individual school subjects involved. Towards this end, this article sketches out a conceptual framework for the issue of interdisciplinarity with regard to philosophy and science in upper secondary school. This framework takes into account aspects of the nature of science (NOS), history and philosophy of science (HPS) and the critical thinking approach which have significant implications for teaching. It aims to facilitate a basic understanding of the significant positive impact philosophy could have on improving scientific literacy as well as decision-making in general. I set forth methods of cross-curricular teaching which can promote innovation in education as interdisciplinarity already does in research since there is growing appreciation of collaboration and partnership between philosophy and science.

     

Social Constructivism,the Gospel of Science,and the Teaching of Physics

During the last two decades, science studies have increasingly been dominated by ideas related to social constructivism and the sociology of scientific knowledge. This paper offers a critical examination of some of the basic claims of this branch of science studies and argues that social constructivists cannot explain some of the most characteristic features of the physical sciences. The implications of social constructivism for science education are considered. I conclude that if education in physics consistently followed the philosophy of sociology of scientific knowledge in its more extreme versions it would mean the end of physics. However, the rejection of social constructivism does not imply a rejection of social or cultural studies of science or their value in science education.     

(Em)Powered by Science? Estimating the Relative Labor Market Returns to Majoring in Science in High School in India

Despite widespread belief that majoring in science in high school has a greater payoff in the Indian labor market than majoring in business/humanities, there is no hard evidence to substantiate this thought. Here I provide the first evidence of the causal effect of majoring in science on individuals’ labor market outcomes relative to majoring in business/humanities using microdata from India. Estimating the causal effect, however, is a formidable task since selection into high school major is nonrandom and exclusion restrictions are unavailable. I circumvent these difficulties by employing an econometric technique that does not rely on valid exclusion restriction for identification. I find that majoring in science has a negative causal effect on individuals’ employment probability. Conditional on being employed, however, majoring in science has a positive causal effect on individuals’ earnings and probability of being engaged in a professional occupation. These findings suggest, in contrast to conventional wisdom, the labor market effects of majoring in science in high school in India is not a plain tale of ‘science premium’ - while majoring in science might lead to relatively better labor market outcomes for those who are able to find employment, finding employment itself is more difficult for science majors.     

Academic Effort and Achievement in Science: Beyond a Gendered Relationship

This study employs the 2004 School Achievement Indicators Program (SAIP) data to examine whether academic effort manifested by greater investments in school and homework does result in higher literacy scores in science for Canadian students. The study compares four gender–immigrant profiles: Canadian-born males, immigrant males, Canadian-born females, and immigrant females on their scores on teacher-assigned grades in science and on the SAIP science literacy test, and across a range of dispositions, beliefs, and behaviors suggested in the literature as predictive of achievement in science. Study findings show that Canadian-born students, particularly boys, have higher performance in the science literacy test despite their lower achievement in the science classroom and the least investments of time in doing science homework. In contrast, immigrant female students demonstrate the highest academic effort and achievement in science courses which are not matched by similar results in the science literacy test. We discuss these results in relation to different socialization experiences with science and technology that limit female and immigrant students’ abilities to transfer knowledge to new situations that have not been learned in the classroom.