中學世界史教科書中「科學革命」的呈現 (1949-2014)

Abstract

“The Scientific Revolution” in high school world history textbooks (1949-2014) Yuer-Hsing Chi Heng-An Chen Department of History & College of Liberal Arts SUMMARY This study mainly investigated how the world history textbooks in high school have presented “Scientific Revolution” since the national government moved to Taiwan. That is, we looked into the changes and features of “Scientific Revolution” in high school world history textbooks. Through the development of world history education in Taiwanese high schools, the study first analyzed the curriculum guidelines of the middle school history. We found that since the abolishment of martial laws in 1987, because of the educational reform, the guidelines have gone through several changes. They turned to focus on cultivating the students’ world view and eliminating “European Centrism.” The concept of “Scientific Revolution” has become popular in historical studies since the end of WWII. The related studies nowadays have also started to review and rethink critically on this issue. In the world history textbooks of the Taiwanese high school, the term of “Scientific Revolution” was from nothing to something. In Taiwan, most of the world history textbooks adopted the traditional methods on describing “Scientific Revolution.” Centering on the scientists, the major axis is the revolution of Astronomy and scientific methods. In the future, regarding the introduction on “Scientific Revolution,” in addition to basing on traditional descriptive methods, we suggested to incorporate more reflections, and integrated more political and social backgrounds in the high school world history textbooks. In this way, the students can understand the history from different aspects, holding multiple historical views. Key words: textbooks, history education, high school education, the Scientific Revolution, world history INTRODUCTION Because of the technical improvements brought about by the new technology, the trends globalization were triggered, which forced us to cultivate more profound world view as well as the understanding and tolerance on multi-cultures. Therefore, recent education and learning of world history in high schools have been centered on cultivating macro world view as the primary learning objective. Among the world history textbooks, although the chapter of “Scientific Revolution” does not take up major printed pages, it is one of the very few chapters that lead students to understand the required scientific subjects from a historic perspective. For this reason, it has its value for investigating. The study mainly explored how the world history textbooks in high school have presented “Scientific Revolution” since the national government moved to Taiwan, and how historical studies and perspectives have influenced on the presentations. MATERIALS AND METHODS The present study focused on the “Scientific Revolution” presented in the world history textbooks used by Taiwanese high schools. We investigated the textbooks published from the time that the national government moved to Taiwan to the latest version of textbooks. Because these textbooks were compiled based on the curriculum standards and guidelines set up by MOE, this research also analyzed the changes of the standards and guidelines in this years. By literature review and analysis, we collected related literature on middle school history education. Moreover, we generalized and analyzed based on the main subject of the study “Scientific Revolution” in order to learn the formation, appearance, reflections and rethought on the concept “Scientific Revolution” in the academic field. Afterward, we adopted content analysis method to analyze how “Scientific Revolution” is presented in the textbook chapter. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION After 1987, because of educational reform, the purpose of Taiwanese history education had transformed from enable students to learn the position of “Our Nation” from the learning of “Foreign Countries” to equipped students with “World View.” The content had also changed from political-history-focused to cultural-history-focused, hoping to eliminate “European Centrism” and centering on the present rather than the past. Recently, there have been less political constraints on middle school world history textbooks. However, it is still a big challenge to incorporate historical study results and multiple perspectives properly in the textbooks. “The Scientific Revolution,” from the historical perspective, indicates the period from 16th to 18th century in Europe (Especially 17th century; the year 1543 is viewed as the index of its outset.) There were revolutionary developments in the scientific theories and experiments in these years, which thoroughly changed the scientific approaches. It meant the appearance of modern science. Also, thanks to these scientists, there are tremendous changes in Europeans Universal View. The concept of the term “Scientific Revolution” was originated from Jean le Rond D’Alembert in the 18th century. It was after 1939 that Alexandre Koyre formally brought up the concept. Then, Herbert Butterfield popularized the concept, so the concept became very popular in historical field in the western world. Recently, the academics have had profound reflections and rethought on it. However, “Scientific Revolution” is still a widely-used concept in history. The early versions of curriculum guidelines and textbooks in Taiwanese high school world history did not include the issue of “Scientific Revolution.” The term of “Scientific Revolution” in Taiwanese history education could be said to be from nothing to something. The related content of “Scientific Revolution” in these textbooks that appear the most often in the attached pictures is the revolution-related figures, especially scientists. There is high reappearing and continuing rate of the revolution-related attached pictures. However, the explanations on these pictures have been changing constantly, causing the phenomenon of “one picture, multiple explanations.” Beginning from Nicolau Copernicus through Galileo Galilei,and Johannes Kepler and finally Isaac Newton represented a generalization of views. The presenting approach of traditional “Scientific Revolution”, from astronomy physics, was always included as the center of content. In addition, the inductive method by Francis Bacon and the deductive method by Rene Descartes were the must-mentioned “Scientific methods.” CONCLUSION From the “Scientific Revolution” in the middle school world history textbooks, we can see that the Taiwanese world history teaching material has been renewed with the current academic research. However, the textbooks obviously revealed “fixation.” Once appearing, many fixed terms tend to reappear in the following versions, which are difficult to change, even relive. However, it is apparent that the descriptions in the textbooks still focused too much on the contribution of “Scientific Revolution,” which might be too heroic-oriented. Recently, there is only a few reflection and rethought on “Scientific Revolution” in the academic field. So far, the related content only appeared the Han-Lin Senior High School History based on the latest 2011 curriculum guideline. In the end of the research, we gave some suggestions on the future introduction of “Scientific Revolution” in the middle school world history textbooks. From the junior high school textbooks, we can still focus on introducing traditional concepts of “Scientific Revolution,” but more clear definition, time scope and background information and other related contents should be presented. In the senior high school stage, in addition to the original contents on “Scientific Revolution,” we can discuss the scientific activities at that time through the political perspectives and social background. Also, we should incorporate some reflections and rethought by the academics in the textbook. In this way, students can not only learn the historical knowledge, but also cultivate the ability to think critically at the same time.