Introduction: The Second Nordic HPS&ST Symposium

Abstract

The symposium concentrated on questions of how to promote better science teaching and better scientific literacy in all levels of education by having lessons informed by the history, philosophy, and sociology of science. In particular, the symposium attempted to discuss and find ways to implement these aspects of knowledge and knowledge formation in teacher-education programs. The collection of papers in this volume, discuss a diversity of topics, but with the common core how philosophy and history of science can be used for the benefits of science teaching. The uses and advantages of such a view are today acknowledged not only in the field of education, but also in the field of cognitively oriented views of learning. The article Questioning and Experimentation by Arto Mutanen makes an interesting and new contact between Jaakko Hintikka’s philosophy and education. This opening is new and with many potential applications in field of science education. In the core of the article is Hintikka’s interrogative model of inquiry, with its explicit and well-formed logic of questioning and answering. This model is then used to analyze the learning process. The insights contained in this work show in very illuminating way, how philosophy of science can act as a source of innovation in teaching. The contributions, Consolidating Pre-service Physics Teachers’ Subject Matter Knowledge Using Didactical Reconstructions by Terhi Mantyla and Maija Nousiainen, and How to Use Historical Approach to Teach Nature of Science in Chemistry Education by Simo Tolvanen, Jan Jansson Veli-Matti Vesterinen and Maija Aksela, come from the research groups of Faculty of Science, Helsinki University, and both describe those innovations and practical renovations which have been done in teacher education inspired by history and philosophy in science. The article by Mantyla and Nousiainen describes approaches used in physics teacher education, and based on certain didactical reconstruction used to emphasize the epistemological aspects of science. The authors discuss