Introducing Fundamental Physical Experiments to Students

Ideas concerning the experimental method of cognition can be inculcatedin the process of learning physics both by means of performing educationalexperiments in class and also by studying the main features of a scientificexperiment. Having their own distinct pedagogical functions, these activitiescomplement each other and are equally necessary. Indeed, if the students arerestricted to making educational experiments only, they might thereby acquireincorrect ideas concerning the nature and role of the experimental method,because the educational experiment differs greatly from the scientific one byits tasks, complexity, number and variability of experiments and devices used,measurements, and calculational techniques. That is why, along with doingtraditional demonstrations, laboratory work and exercises, it is also necessaryto give the students certain methodological information about the experimentalmethod. This may include information on the role of experiments in scientificcognition and research, types of scientific experiments (observations and properexperiments), the importance of the measurement procedure, the demands imposedon modern physical experiments, the scientific character of measurements in themicroworld, and the methodological principle of observability.     

Structure of Scientific Knowledge and Curriculum Design

In the theory of teaching, the problem of interrelation between two types of cognition — the scientific and the educational — has been discussed for a long time. The author of this paper has come to the conclusion that logic of an educational subject does not unambiguously follow from the logic of science (paradigm). The same content of the course can be realized with the help of several isomorphous structures of equal value and consistent with the existing logic of science. The choice of structure is determined by educational aims, types of education institutions, periods of studies, the presence of connections between subjects and other conditions.