A topic in teaching science
An authentic science education asks learners to both learn about some specific scientific ideas and also to learn something of the nature of science – the practices of scientists and the processes by which new scientific knowledge is constructed and developed. There are a number of nature of science (sometimes abbreviated to 'NOS') themes that might be thought important to teach young people about.
Read more about teaching the nature of science
The institutional aspect of science
One of themes is the way contemporary science is institutionalised (in relation to universities and research institutes, learned and professional societies, funding councils and so forth).
It can be suggested that
"From an anthropological perspective, science is a sub-culture with its own rituals and priesthood."
(Taber, 2017: 34)
Just as science is very much a human activity, subject to the strengths, weaknesses and foibles of individual people (as seen for example in the case of the discovery of the structure of D.N.A. as represented in the film 'Life Story'), it is also enabled, channeled and sometimes restricted by institutional procedures and norms.
Read about the human element in science
"The same case study can illustrate some of the institutional features of modern science, where the work of individual scientists relies upon institutional support in a laboratory, and may be subject to local norms and practice – as when Rosalind Franklin (co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, see above) discovered she was not allowed to take refreshments in the same common room as her male colleagues, and was therefore excluded from theinformal professional conversations that inevitably take place in such settings. That particular indignity is less likely today. However, modern
scientific research laboratories are places of hierarchy, protocols and procedures, and financial
restraints…" (Taber, 2017: 33-4)
Scientific work depends upon a supporting structure
of formal institutions
"Science is a relatively democratic enterprise in the weight given to the peer
review process (such that any one can publish in the top journals if their work is judged as original and rigorous), but inevitably as a human activity can only take place within a supporting structure of formal institutions. The stereotype of the lone scientist making great breakthroughs in their shed or basement is – with the very occasional exception like James Lovelock (who invented the electron capture detector, surveyed the levels of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in the atmosphere, and proposed the Gaia theory of the biosphere) – now a historical anachronism." (Taber, 2017: 34)
Work cited:
- Taber, K. S. (2017). Reflecting the nature of science in science education. In K. S. Taber & B. Akpan (Eds.), Science Education: An International Course Companion (pp. 23-37). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. [Download the author’s manuscript version of the chapter.]
