A topic in teaching science
The nature of 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
One of these themes is creativity. "Creativity is … important in the development of the public knowledge of science, because it is essential to the discovery process, even if formal research reports are focused on the context of justification, and leave the context of discovery as material for anecdote, after-dinner speeches or memoirs. As creativity is so essential to science, any authentic science education should reflect that." (Taber, 2011: [Download the chapter.])
Logical thought in science
Logical thinking is essential in science. "Science is often associated with logical thinking, and this is indeed an important feature of science…Logic is needed to work out predictions consistent with particular hypotheses or models, and logic is needed to interpret data in terms of different principles, laws and theories, and to construct arguments to persuade other scientists of the validity of conclusions." (Taber, 2017: 32 [Download the chapter.])
Imaginative thought in science
"The theoretical idea (atomism in this case) does not arise apart from and independent of experience; nor can it be derived from experience by a purely logical procedure. It is produced by a creative act."
Albert Einstein, 1950
But creative thinking is just as important.
"Logic is needed when testing out ideas, but first scientists have to come up with the ideas to test. It is naive to think that scientists can move directly from data to scientific knowledge, as data always have to be interpreted in terms of some conceptual scheme. That scheme is an imaginative construction of the human mind…Often the scientists who become most well known do so not because they were more logical than other scientists, but because they were able to use their imaginations to develop possible new ways of thinking which could then be compared to data" (Taber, 2017: 32 [Download the chapter.])
"No amount of statistical data processing produces new hypotheses by itself, let alone laws; in general no amount of technique, whether empirical or mathematical, saves us the labour of inventing new ideas, although it can effectively conceal the lack of ideas."
Mario Bunge
Visualisation
The word visualisation has been used in various ways, but one meaning is the ability to form a mental picture of some imaginary, conjectured or desired scheme, system or state of affairs. "For some scientists, such as Einstein, this imaginative process is primarily visual – they are able to imagine pictures that represent novel relationships and concepts. Visualisation is also important in running thought experiments (mental simulations) that may be useful in ruling out some options without needing to run real experiments, and which may help predict the outcomes to be expected in experiments according to particular hypotheses" (Taber, 2017: 32 [Download the chapter.]).
Iteration between creative and logical modes
So logic should not be contrasted with creativity, as both are essential in different phases of work in science: "Science proceeds though the complementary roles of creative (expansive, imaginative, divergent) and logical (rational, closed, linear) thought" (Taber, 2017: 32 [Download the chapter.]).
Perhaps there is also a parallel here with Kuhn's notion of the essential tension important in science, between convergent phases of following traditions and applying familiar paradigms and divergent findings of challenging dogma and offering new ways of thinking to be considered and tested.
Works cited:
- Bunge, M. (1998). Philosophy of Science. Volume 1: From problem to theory. Routledge. (1967)
- Einstein, Albert (1950/1994) On the generalized theory of gravitation. In Ideas and Opinions, New York: The Modern Library.
- Taber, K. S. (2011). The natures of scientific thinking: creativity as the handmaiden to logic in the development of public and personal knowledge. In M. S. Khine (Ed.), Advances in the Nature of Science Research – Concepts and Methodologies (pp. 51-74). Dordrecht: Springer. [Download the author's manuscript version of the chapter.]
- 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.]
