Abstract
The principles of research methodology were borrowed by social scientists from the natural sciences. However, research methods courses are more likely to be found in the social sciences today while the natural sciences take the principles of methodology for granted except in courses on laboratory methods in physics and chemistry or numeric methods in mathematics. This article suggests that it is time for the social sciences to serve as a model for the natural sciences by emphasizing the importance of teaching quantitative and qualitative research methods courses and adhering to the principles in research. The important principle of validity will be used to illustrate what modern physics, for example, could relearn from the social sciences.
Highlights
When I was completing my doctoral dissertation at Edinburgh University, I once attended a gathering welcoming visiting Nigerian university Vice Chancellors to Scotland
I differ from the moral panic because I believe that what the young student was demonstrating with his imaginative mind is the same flaw in science education globally that I pointed out to the Physics professor in Scotland years ago
The problem here is the problem of validity of his measurement instrument, a problem that he never discussed, a problem that is rarely discussed in modern physics or mathematics
Summary
When I was completing my doctoral dissertation at Edinburgh University, I once attended a gathering welcoming visiting Nigerian university Vice Chancellors to Scotland. The natural sciences are so confident in their mastery of the principles of good research that they do not teach it as rigorously as is the case in the social sciences They probably view the suggestion as ridiculous as offering courses to babies on how to walk upright. It is something you learn by trying and no amount of thick volumes of methodology textbooks would teach you how to set up experiments and observe the effects, record your observations and draw your conclusions under strict supervision by a master scientist This might be one of the reasons why Sandra Harding wrote that fascinating chapter on ‘Why Physics is a bad Model for Physics’ in her book, Whose Science, Whose Knowledge? Whether or not they succeed, I am impressed that scholars of African descent are challenging major orthodoxies in science and my comments here should be seen by them as collegial constructive criticism to aid them and others in their ambitious tasks
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