Abstract
German physics professors consider technical aspects of scientific research as more important than the softer aspects, such as the contribution of different kinds of people to scientific inquiry.
Highlights
Becoming a physicist is more than acquiring knowledge, but rather a complex process of becoming part of a specific culture
One might identify a kind of “hidden curriculum” consisting of epistemology, ontology, and discourse [6]. These hidden parts of physics education directly convey elements of this culture of physics but depend more on the personal beliefs and attitudes
Professors’ views of nature of science— they play a vital role in the processes introducing young physicists into the culture of physics—are relatively under-researched
Summary
Becoming a physicist is more than acquiring knowledge, but rather a complex process of becoming part of a specific culture. The German standards, on the other hand, concentrate more on the contribution of physics to “Bildung.” They do contain competencies in the area of scientific investigations, i.e., using experiments and models, but they do not call for knowledge about the nature of science as the American tradition does [11,12,13] On this basis we will deal with the nature of science [(NOS), or epistemological beliefs which is subtly different] as part of that hidden curriculum, with those professors who supposedly teach this implicitly during their courses at universities within a culture that traditionally does not take NOS as an important content. The term nature of science, on the other hand, stems from the area of teaching and curriculum development It carries the aspect of students knowing what can factually be said about how sciences work and what status its knowledge has [18]. Knowing about the different traditions we will use the terms NOS and epistemological beliefs interchangeably
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