Re: Nature of Science (NOS)

[Joseph Bellina <jbellina@SAINTMARYS.EDU>]

You raise an interesting point, that there is a resonance between the
authoritarian idea of the nature of science, the authoritarian style of
the textbook and the authoritarian appearance of the lecture
classroom...reinforcing an authoritarian SM.
I am trying to break those connections by teaching eled majors physics
by guided inquiry...with no mention of method at all.  It certainly
doesn't appear to be authoritarian to the students.  Now I have to
convince them that this is real science.

cheers

On Tue, 3 Sep 2002, John Clement
wrote:

> One wonders how many of the major university science courses include "THE
> Scientific Method" in the course descriptions.  I suspect that the schools
> that reject 2 Yr courses do not include it in the description of their own
> physics courses.
>
> I think that even using it in elementary school courses is destructive.  Of
> course by HS many students have begun to realize that they were told many
> lies in elementary school.  These range from the myth of the Pilgrims to
> "THE Scientific Method".  In a sense the most destructive myth is the idea
> that science is THE Truth and that it is difficult so that only the elect
> can learn it.  The lecture system and book learned science which is pushed
> in middle school and HS leave students with such a poor understanding of
> science that many consider themselves as failures.
>
> John M. Clement
> Houston, TX
>
> > In the end I think that almost all of us are in favor of teaching about
> > 'Scientific Methods' while almost no one is in favor of (or even
> > knows what
> > is) 'THE Scientific Method'.  The task at hand is to get the 'powers that
> > be' to understand the difference and stop demanding the latter.
> >
> > Rick

Joseph J. Bellina, Jr.               574-284-4662
Associate Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556