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a history debate...ref found



I received the following note from Stephen Brush. Thanks to all who
contributed responses to my query. Dewey

yes, there was some discussion of that issue circa 1970. My own
publications on it were:

"The role of history in the teaching of physics" PHYSICS TEACHER 7 (1969)
271-80

"Should the history of science be rated X?" SCIENCE 183 (1974) 1164-72

"Comments on "On the Distortion of the History of Science in Science
Education" [by Harvey Siegel] SCIENCE EDUCATION 63 (1979) 277-78

"Further comments on Siegel on Brush" SCIENCE EDUCATION 64 (1980) 123

The idea that it is not desirable for future scientists to be taught
accurate history, to which some of the above remarks are directed, was
expressed by Thomas Kuhn in his STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS You
may also want to look at Martin Klein's lecture on "The use and abuse of
historical teaching in physics" published in a book HISTORY IN THE TEACHING
OF PHYSICS edited by S.G.Brush & A. L. King (University Press of New
England, 1972) His point, I recall, was that science teachers and
historians of science have different purposes, and what works for one group
may not be suitable for the other.

The argument surfaced again in a conference in London last summer, sponsored
by the British Society for History of Science, where several speakers argued
that if you want to be effective in communicating with students and the
public, you must risk alienating your colleagues in the history of science
by adopting, e.g., the "narrative" approach ("telling a story") which is out
of favor in our profession.

The debate continues in the pages of the journal SCIENCE & EDUCATION:
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIOLOGY OF SCIENCE AND
EDUCATION (not to be confused with SCIENCE EDUCATION)

Stephen Brush


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Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)426-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)426-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418 Fax: (208)426-4330
Boise State University dykstrad@email.boisestate.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper: GHB, Uilleann

"As a result of modern research in physics, the ambition and hope,
still cherished by most authorities of the last century, that physical
science could offer a photographic picture and true image of reality
had to be abandoned." --M. Jammer in Concepts of Force, 1957.

"If what we regard as real depends on our theory, how can we make
reality the basis of our philosophy? ...But we cannot distinguish
what is real about the universe without a theory...it makes no sense
to ask if it corresponds to reality, because we do not know what
reality is independent of a theory."--S. Hawking in Black Holes
and Baby Universes, 1993.
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