Abstract
The objective of this article is to make explicit some concrete ways in which an accurate perspective of what science is contributes significantly to improving science teaching. Effective science teaching begins with the recognition that for both practising scientists and students the desire to find answers to personally meaningful questions about natural phenomena is the strongest incentive to study science. Instructional methods that nurture and draw upon the curiosity of students have the best chance to motivate students to learn science. Teaching in this way entails helping students 1) to see the conceptual relevance, utility, and aesthetic dimension of what they are studying; 2) to appreciate the need for, and power of, rational thinking in problem solving; 3) to undertake their own exploratory projects to investigate some aspect of the physical world that interests them. For science teachers to do this well, they must, themselves, a) be knowledgeable of the science they teach, b) keep abreast of advances in their areas of interest, and c) develop their own experimental and observational skills so they can teach with confidence based on personal experience.
Highlights
The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatises, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself
The substance of my remarks is based on my personal experiences in teaching science at university and college level, as well as participating in the home-schooling of children from their earliest years through the end of high school
My concern in this paper focuses on science instruction at college and university level where teachers may be practising scientists, the principal points I wish to make are of general validity to science education at any level from primary school upward
Summary
The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatises, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself. A teacher who sees science as a repository of facts from which the correct conclusions ineluctably flow may well communicate to students that personal attributes and human interactions do not matter, that scientific progress follows from slavish adherence to prescribed scientific methods and not from creative imagination and resourceful use of serendipity In such classrooms a student’s failure to arrive at the right answers could be construed as a sign of mental sluggishness and not of a possibly valid (or at least provocative) alternative way of approaching a proposed problem. In contrast to the foregoing false perspectives, teachers need to realise that 1) science is a multi-faceted mode of inquiry and not a storehouse of facts; and 2) science involves personalities, real scientific discoveries inform about the physical world and not about cultural biases They can create in the classroom an atmosphere in which students are encouraged to think, to experiment, to challenge; in short, to engage in the type of creative exploration of which science consists
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