Model Of Scientific Inquiry Research Articles

A Discussion of Dawn Langan Teele’s Field Experiments and Their Critics: Essays on the Uses and Abuses of Experimentation in the Social Sciences

Experimental approaches to political science research have become increasingly prominent in the discipline. Experimental research is regularly featured in some of the discipline’s top journals, and indeed in 2014 a new Journal of Experimental Political Science was created, published by Cambridge University Press. At the same time, there are disagreements among political scientists about the limits of experimental research, the ethical challenges associated with this research, and the general model of social scientific inquiry underlying much experimental research. Field Experiments and Their Critics: Essays on the Uses and Abuses of Experimentation in the Social Sciences, edited by Dawn Langan Teele (Yale University Press 2015), brings together many interesting perspectives on these issues. And so we have invited a number of political scientists to comment on the book, the issues it raises, and the more general question of “the uses and abuses of experimentation in the social sciences.”

A Discussion of Dawn Langan Teele’s Field Experiments and Their Critics: Essays on the Uses and Abuses of Experimentation in the Social Sciences

Experimental approaches to political science research have become increasingly prominent in the discipline. Experimental research is regularly featured in some of the discipline’s top journals, and indeed in 2014 a new Journal of Experimental Political Science was created, published by Cambridge University Press. At the same time, there are disagreements among political scientists about the limits of experimental research, the ethical challenges associated with this research, and the general model of social scientific inquiry underlying much experimental research. Field Experiments and Their Critics: Essays on the Uses and Abuses of Experimentation in the Social Sciences, edited by Dawn Langan Teele (Yale University Press 2015), brings together many interesting perspectives on these issues. And so we have invited a number of political scientists to comment on the book, the issues it raises, and the more general question of “the uses and abuses of experimentation in the social sciences.”

A Discussion of Dawn Langan Teele’s Field Experiments and Their Critics: Essays on the Uses and Abuses of Experimentation in the Social Sciences

Experimental approaches to political science research have become increasingly prominent in the discipline. Experimental research is regularly featured in some of the discipline’s top journals, and indeed in 2014 a new Journal of Experimental Political Science was created, published by Cambridge University Press. At the same time, there are disagreements among political scientists about the limits of experimental research, the ethical challenges associated with this research, and the general model of social scientific inquiry underlying much experimental research. Field Experiments and Their Critics: Essays on the Uses and Abuses of Experimentation in the Social Sciences, edited by Dawn Langan Teele (Yale University Press 2015), brings together many interesting perspectives on these issues. And so we have invited a number of political scientists to comment on the book, the issues it raises, and the more general question of “the uses and abuses of experimentation in the social sciences.”

A Discussion of Dawn Langan Teele’s Field Experiments and Their Critics: Essays on the Uses and Abuses of Experimentation in the Social Sciences

Experimental approaches to political science research have become increasingly prominent in the discipline. Experimental research is regularly featured in some of the discipline’s top journals, and indeed in 2014 a new Journal of Experimental Political Science was created, published by Cambridge University Press. At the same time, there are disagreements among political scientists about the limits of experimental research, the ethical challenges associated with this research, and the general model of social scientific inquiry underlying much experimental research. Field Experiments and Their Critics: Essays on the Uses and Abuses of Experimentation in the Social Sciences, edited by Dawn Langan Teele (Yale University Press 2015), brings together many interesting perspectives on these issues. And so we have invited a number of political scientists to comment on the book, the issues it raises, and the more general question of “the uses and abuses of experimentation in the social sciences.”

Improving Science Student Teachers’ Self-perceptions of Fluency with Innovative Technologies and Scientific Inquiry Abilities

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of “Environmental Chemistry” elective course via Technology-Embedded Scientific Inquiry (TESI) model on senior science student teachers’ (SSSTs) self-perceptions of fluency with innovative technologies (InT) and scientific inquiry abilities. The study was conducted with 117 SSSTs (68 females and 49 males—aged 21–23 years) enrolled in the “Environmental Chemistry” elective course in spring semester of 2011–2012 academic year in a Turkish University. Within a simple (causal) experimental design, Innovative Technology Fluency Survey and the SSSTs’ environmental research papers were employed to collect data. The results indicate that the “Environmental Chemistry” elective course via the TESI model improved the SSSTs’ self-perceptions of fluency with InT and the scientific inquiry abilities. In light of the results, it is recommended that an undergraduate course for improving the SSSTs’ higher-order scientific inquiry abilities and preparing academically papers should be devised and added into the science teacher-training programmes.

Effects of ‘Environmental Chemistry’ Elective Course Via Technology-Embedded Scientific Inquiry Model on Some Variables

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of ‘environmental chemistry’ elective course via Technology-Embedded Scientific Inquiry (TESI) model on senior science student teachers’ (SSSTs) conceptions of environmental chemistry concepts/issues, attitudes toward chemistry, and technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) levels. Within one group pre-test–post-test design, the study was conducted with 117 SSSTs (68 females and 49 males—aged 21–23 years) enrolled in an ‘environmental chemistry’ elective course in the spring semester of 2011–2012 academic-years. Instruments for data collection comprised of Environmental Chemistry Conceptual Understanding Questionnaire, TPACK survey, and Chemistry Attitudes and Experiences Questionnaire. Significant increases in the SSSTs’ conceptions of environmental chemistry concepts/issues, attitudes toward chemistry, and TPACK levels are attributed to the SSSTs learning how to use the innovative technologies in the contexts of the ‘environmental chemistry’ elective course and teaching practicum. The study implies that the TESI model may serve a useful purpose in experimental science courses that use the innovative technologies. However, to generalize feasibility of the TESI model, it should be evaluated with SSSTs in diverse learning contexts.

The Nature of Pre-service Science Teachers’ Argumentation in Inquiry-oriented Laboratory Context

The aim of this study was to investigate the kinds of argumentation schemes generated by pre-service elementary science teachers (PSTs) as they perform inquiry-oriented laboratory tasks, and to explore how argumentation schemes vary by task as well as by experimentation and discussion sessions. The model of argumentative and scientific inquiry was used as a design framework in the present study. According to the model, the inquiry of scientific topics was employed by groups of participants through experimentation and critical discussion sessions. The participants of the study were 35 PSTs, who teach middle school science to sixth through eighth grade students after graduation. The data were collected through video- and audio-recordings of the discussions made by PSTs in six inquiry-oriented laboratory sessions. For the analysis of data, pre-determined argumentation schemes by Walton were employed. The results illustrated that PSTs applied varied premises rather than only observations or reliable sources to ground their claims or to argue for a case or an action. It is also worthy of notice that the construction and evaluation of scientific knowledge claims resulted in different numbers and kinds of arguments. Results of this study suggest that designing inquiry-oriented laboratory environments, which are enriched with critical discussion, provides discourse opportunities that can support argumentation. Moreover, PSTs can be encouraged to support and promote argumentation in their future science classrooms if they engage in argumentation integrated instructional strategies.

Reliability of testimonial norms in scientific communities

Several current debates in the epistemology of testimony are implicitly motivated by concerns about the reliability of rules for changing one’s beliefs in light of others’ claims. Call such rules testimonial norms (tns). To date, epistemologists have neither (i) characterized those features of communities that influence the reliability of tns, nor (ii) evaluated the reliability of tns as those features vary. These are the aims of this paper. I focus on scientific communities, where the transmission of highly specialized information is both ubiquitous and critically important. Employing a formal model of scientific inquiry, I argue that miscommunication and the “communicative structure” of science strongly influence the reliability of tns, where reliability is made precise in three ways.

A Possible Scientific Inquiry Model based on Hypothetico-Deduction Method Involving Abduction

The aims of this study are to investigate two main problems for the hypothetico-deduction method and to develop a scientific inquiry model to resolve these problems. The structure of this scientific inquiry model consists of accounts of the context of discovery and justification that the hypothetico-deduction holds as two main problems : 1) the heuristic flaw in the hypothetico-deduction method is that there is no limit to creating hypotheses to explain natural phenomena; 2) Logically, this brings into question affirming the consequent and modus tollens. The features of the model are as follows: first, the generation of hypotheses using an analogical abduction and the selection of hypotheses using consilience and simplicity; second, the expansion phase as resolution for the fallacy of affirming the consequent and the recycle phase as resolution for modus tollens involving auxiliary hypotheses. Finally, we examine the establishment process of Copernicus's Heliocentric Hypothesis and the main role of the history of science for the historical invalidity of this scientific inquiry model based on three examples of If/and/then type of explanation testing suggested by Lawson (International journal of science and Mathematics Education, 2005a, 3(1): 1-5) We claim that this hypotheticho-deduction process involving abduction approach produced favorable in scientific literacy rising for science teacher as well as students.

Lipman, Dewey, and Philosophical Inquiry in the Mathematics Classroom

The paper discusses Matthew Lipman’s approach to inquiry as shaped and fashioned by John Dewey’s model of scientific inquiry. Although Lipman’s program adopted the major aspects of Dewey’s pedagogy, at least two characteristics of that program stand out as radically differ ent—his use of relatively free-form philosophical discussions to teach complex thinking, and his formulation and development of what he called a “community of inquiry” as a pedagogical setting for holding and sustaining such discussions. Here Lipman’s Philosophy for Children program is seen as a framework for the design and performance of philosophical inquiry in the disciplines—something that he himself contemplated but never realized. In this paper I outline a few possible directions for opening spaces in school-based mathematical practices for philosophical deliberation in a community of inquiry, Lipman style. I argue that such an opening represents a potential expansion of students’ mathematical experiences—a way of nurturing and integrating a sense of the philosophical perspectives of the discipline into the regular math class that is larger and more encompassing, and that promises to provide bridges for establishing richer and more meaningful connections and interactions with students’ personal experience, with other disciplines, and with the broader culture; and thus a prime example of what Dewey called “educative experience.”

Analyzing Senior Science Student Teachers' Environmental Research Projects of Scientific Inquiry: a Preliminary Study

The aim of this study is to assess a group of senior science student teachers' (SSSTs) environmental research project reports as an indicator of their ability to do scientific inquiry. The SSSTs conducted their own environmental research projects with innovative technologies after they were taught the Technology-embedded Scientific Inquiry (TESI) model. A total of 29 environmental research project reports were assessed using Scientific Inquiry Ability rubrics. The SSSTs' environmental research projects generally reflected attainment of various levels of scientific inquiry abilities. The study implies that the science education classes that integrate innovative technologies focus on developing the sophisticated attributes of scientific inquiry so that SSSTs put forth a conscious effort in attaining higher levels of proficiency when they engage in environmental research projects.

Literature and Environment

Since prehistory, literature and the arts have been drawn to portrayals of physical environments and human-environment interactions. The modern environmentalist movement as it emerged first in the late-nineteenth century and, in its more recent incarnation, in the 1960s, gave rise to a rich array of fictional and nonfictional writings concerned with humans' changing relationship to the natural world. Only since the early 1990s, however, has the long-standing interest of literature studies in these matters generated the initiative most commonly known as “ecocriticism,” an eclectic and loosely coordinated movement whose contributions thus far have been most visible within its home discipline of literature but whose interests and alliances extend across various art forms and media. In such areas as the study of narrative and image, ecocriticism converges with its sister disciplines in the humanities: environmental anthropology, environmental history, and environmental philosophy. In the first two sections, we begin with a brief overview of the nature, significance, and evolution of literature-environment studies. We then summarize in more detail six specific centers of interest: (a) the imagination of place and place-attachment, (b) the enlistment and critique of models of scientific inquiry in the study of literature and the arts, (c) the examination of the significance of gender difference and environmental representation, (d) the cross-pollination of ecocritical and postcolonial scholarship as ecocriticism has extended its horizons beyond its original focus on Anglo-American imagination, (e) ecocriticism's evolving interest in indigenous art and thought, and (f) ecocri-ticism's no less keen and complex attentiveness to artistic representation and the ethics of relations between humans and animals.

Using the Activity Model of Inquiry To Enhance General Chemistry Students’ Understanding of Nature of Science

Nature of science refers to the processes of scientific activity and the social and cultural premises involved in the creation of scientific knowledge. Having an informed view of nature of science is important in the development of scientifically literate citizens. However, students often come to the classroom with misconceptions about nature of science. The activity model of inquiry is a theoretically grounded and empirically derived model of scientific inquiry and could be used as a thinking frame to help students develop more informed views of nature of science. This paper reports work on how to implement this model in the general chemistry classroom, and on how undergraduate students’ views of scientific inquiry shift. Implementation includes having students reflect on how current topics in science and their own lab work compare to the activity model of inquiry. Students are asked to respond to essay prompts and a pre- and postquestionnaire designed to assess naive and informed views of nature of scie...

Pedagogical Practices to Support Classroom Cultures of Scientific Inquiry

This article examines the pedagogical practices of two science inquiry teachers and their students using a Web-based system called Web of Inquiry (WOI). There is a need to build a collective repertoire of pedagogical practices that can assist elementary and middle school teachers as they support students to develop a complex model of inquiry based on testing alternative hypotheses. A repertoire of effective instructional practices may help students learn the language of science, develop an understanding of scientific tools and representations, and take up a scientific worldview that emphasizes the generative, social nature of science (National Research Council [NRC], 2007). The Web of Inquiry (WOI) (http://www.webofinquiry.org) is a dynamic website where students carry out scientific inquiry projects to develop and test their theories; learn scientific language, tools, and practices of investigation; engage in self assessment; and provide feedback to peers. Two teachers and their classes participated in this study using a variety of science content. We examine and discuss the teachers’ use of instructional strategies to support students to develop a coherent and theoretically driven model of scientific inquiry using the WOI. Implications of this work are addressed with respect to student and teacher learning and preservice teacher education.

From genetic to genomic regulation: iterativity in microRNA research

The discovery and ongoing investigation of microRNAs (miRNAs) suggest important conceptual and methodological lessons for philosophers and historians of biology. This paper provides an account of miRNA research and the shift from viewing these tiny regulatory entities as minor curiosities to seeing them as major players in the post-transcriptional regulation of genes. Conceptually, the study of miRNAs is part of a broader change in understandings of genetic regulation, in which simple switch-like mechanisms were reinterpreted as aspects of complex cellular and genome-wide processes. Among them are the activities of small RNAs, previously regarded as non-functional. Methodologically, the miRNA story suggests new ways of characterizing biological research that should prove helpful to philosophers of science who seek to develop more pluralistic, pragmatic models of scientific inquiry. miRNA research displays iterative movements between multiple modes of investigation that include not only the proposal and testing of hypotheses but also exploratory, technology-oriented and question-driven modes of research. As an exemplary story of scientific discovery and development, the miRNA case illustrates transitions from genetics to genomics and systems biology, and it shows how diverse configurations of research practice are related to major scientific advances.

The Features of Peer Argumentation in Middle School Students' Scientific Inquiry

This study examined the features of peer argumentation in middle school students' scientific inquiry. Participants were two boys and six girls in grade 8 of a middle school in Seoul, Korea. Students engaged in open inquiry activities in small groups. Each group prepared the report for peer review and then, during the peer discussion, presented their inquiry results while another group acted as critics, in a way similar to conference presentations by scientists. This study's data sources included audio- and video-tapes of discussions, copies of student reports, questionnaires completed by the students and transcripts of interviews with the students. It was found that the critical peer discussion in general proceeded through the following four stages: Focusing, Exchanging, Debating and Closing. In addition, 75.6% of evidence used in students' arguments was personal evidence and students used various cognitive and social strategies in the critical discussion. For an effective critical discussion, making good use of the Focusing Stage was found to be important factor. Students improved their interpretation and methods of experiment during the argumentation process and this feedback made the inquiry circular. Finally, we identify a model of argumentative scientific inquiry as an open inquiry that has the key components of authentic scientific inquiry.

2.3.4 Military Experimentation: A Systems Engineering Approach to Force Development

AbstractThis paper relates the emerging analytical technique of military experimentation to force development and systems engineering practice. A definition of military experimentation is proposed and the purpose, principles and characteristics are described, based on an analysis of current overseas and Australian programs. A model of scientific inquiry is used as the basis for describing how and why military experimentation programs should be constructed. The purpose of military experimentation for different levels of system engineering problems and force development stages is described.

Process research in understanding and applying psychological therapies.

Research on the process of psychological therapy aims to demonstrate how therapy works, partly to increase understanding, but primarily to increase effectiveness by pointing to the crucial ingredients which effect change. This paper aims to demonstrate some of the reasons why process research should be undertaken in the attempt to increase therapeutic effectiveness. A model of scientific inquiry suggests three broad types of process research: (1) studies which describe behaviours and processes occurring within therapy sessions (exploratory studies); (2) studies which investigate the links between specific psychotherapy processes and treatment outcome (hypothesis testing); (3) studies which examine the links between specific psychotherapy processes and theories of change (theory development). Using this typology, we describe key aspects of process research: what it is; what has been studied; the limitations of existing research. Descriptive studies have deepened understanding of the therapeutic process; however, a large number of reliable process-outcome links have been hard to establish. Comparative studies have been rare. Studies which are linked to models of change and which attempt to track therapist responsiveness are more complex and have been more promising. Most studies are beset by methodological difficulties. There are a number of promising future research possibilities and methods. Despite methodological challenges, the field is developing and research is encouraging. We argue that process research has a significant place in advancing our understanding of the complexity of therapeutic change, and hence in facilitating theory development and effective therapeutic interventions.

Against the Excesses of Quantum Gravity: A Plea for Modesty

I argue that all current research programs in quantum gravity conform to the 17th century hypothetico-deductive model of scientific inquiry, perhaps of necessity given the current state of technology. In so far as they do not recognize and advertise the shortcomings of the research method they use, they do a disservice to the integrity of science, for the method admits of far less certainty accruing to its products than one would be led to believe by the pronouncements of researchers in the area.

The New Science of Management: Chaos and Quantum Theory and Method

Are traditional social science methods incapable of dealing with the complex and indeterminant problems facing public management today? It is not so much the wedding of scientific logic and method to management theory and practice that is problematic as it is the outdated models of scientific inquiry that slow our progress. The new sciences of chaos and quantum theory offer valuable metaphors and methods that can challenge the public management research agenda into the next century. Chaos administration evokes the image of self-organization, dissipative structures, and dynamic complexity. The methods of chaos presented here are nonlinear differential equations and nonlinear time-series analysis with phase diagrams. Quantum administration provides a new logic of complementarity, constructivism, and participatory collusion in organizations and management. The quantum methods outlined and applied are Heisenberg's principle of indeterminism and Born's rules of probabilistic interpretation. The metaphors and methods of chaos and quantum theory are applied to familiar management issues such as performance appraisal and budgeting.