In several of his works, Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) presents mathematics as a way of learning about general ideas that increase our understanding of the universe. The danger is that students get bogged down in its technical operations. He argues that mathematics should be an integral part of a new kind of liberal education, incorporating…

History of science can be used to bring scientific concepts to school science in a way that humanizes the protagonists and provides an appropriate context. The authors have researched the 1909 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) in Winnipeg, a significant event in the city's history that has remained largely…

Reflection on several decades of science teaching at the secondary-school level leads to the strong suggestion that a theory of science education should be based on arguments emanating from insights into the process of meaningful communication in the light of modern epistemology. These arguments show that the teacher's personality and engagement…

Recently, there has been an increasing emphasis in discussions on science education on the potential and advantages of stories and narratives in teaching situations. From this, one might conclude that simply starting to use stories in science classrooms is a good thing, "per se". Yet, as I will argue in my paper, things do not appear to be that…

Students tend to have a poor understanding of the concept of gas pressure. Usually, gas pressure is taught in terms of the various formulaic gas laws. The development of the concept of gas pressure according to the early Greeks did not include the concept of a vacuum. It was not for another 2000 years that Torricelli proposed that a vacuum can…

High school physics curricula are designed to meet a number of goals, all of which compete for classroom and homework time. The process-oriented goals include the development of skills in problem solving, measurement, analyzing data, and research, particularly in this world of internet based, unfiltered information. Content goals, on the other…

This article presents a critical review and analysis of key studies that have been done in science education and other areas on the effects and effectiveness of using diagrams, graphs, photographs, illustrations, and concept maps as "adjunct visual aids" in the learning of scientific-technical content. It also summarizes and reviews those studies…

In this essay the importance of spirituality (or ethics) in the life of a research scientist is explored. The following four questions are considered: a) Why should the problem be studied? What are the benefits? and For whom? b) How should we approach this problem? c) What if the results of this investigation contradict other theories? What should…

A teacher and a college student explore experimental science and its history by reading historical texts, and responding with replications and experiments of their own. A curriculum of ever-widening possibilities evolves in their ongoing interactions with each other, history, and such materials as pendulums, flame, and resonant singing tubes.…

A novel "Whiteheadean" science program was initiated in England and Wales in September 2006. Following a critical House of Commons report in 2002, the government altered the National Curriculum targets and thus forced the Examination Boards to alter their specifications in order to come in line. Assessment at GCSE level (i.e., the 14-16 year…

Princeton University Press recently published the American moral philosopher Harry Frankfurt's book "On Bullshit", which quickly made the New York Times best seller list. Originally published in the journal "Raritan" in 1986, Frankfurt's book has been heralded as an important theoretical development in the study of what he (and society)…

Some 35 years ago, Gerard K. O'Neill used the large context of space travel with his undergraduate physics students. A Canadian physics teacher, Art Stinner, independently arrived at a similar notion in a more limited but, therefore, more generally useful sense, which he referred to as the "large context problem" approach. At a slightly earlier…

The aim of this paper is to develop an approach that can be used in addressing the issue of the use of information technology and its importance in human meaning making. By using a combination of Wittgenstein's work method, a sociocultural perspective on learning, and a sociotechnical perspective on artifacts a specific focus for analyses was…

Despite official government srt (in various jurisdictions around the world) for providing students with opportunities to construct their own knowledge within the context of formal schooling, school science systems continue to place greatest priority on teaching and learning of "products" of science (e.g., laws and theories), while compromising…

In this paper, I combine aspects of process philosophy and elements from philosophies of difference in order to give some indication of how we might begin to construct a metaphysics of contemporary science. I will focus on the work of Whitehead and Deleuze as representatives of each respective tradition and try to show how their work can be…