Efforts to eliminate or neutralize the coverage of evolution in high school biology textbooks in the United States have persisted with varying degrees of intensity and success since the 1920s. In particular, the coverage of human evolution has been impacted by these efforts. Evidence of the success of these efforts can be chronicled by the…

The goal of this study is to analyze the images of science and scientists in science biographies written for children. We examined 12 biographies of historic and contemporary scientists written for primary/middle school children in relation to three dimensions: characteristics of scientists, nature and process of scientific knowledge, and social…

This paper presents a defense for the use of historical scripted conversations in science. We discuss drama's use of both expository and narrative text forms to expand the language forms available for a variety of learners, the use of scripted conversations as a defensible curriculum design to foster learning in general and science in particular,…

This paper examines the mathematical work of the French bishop, Nicole Oresme (c. 1323-1382), and his contributions towards the development of the concept of graphing functions and approaches to investigating infinite series. The historical importance and pedagogical value of his work will be considered in the context of an undergraduate course on…

This paper provides an argument in favor of a specific pedagogical method of using the history of science to help students develop more informed views about nature of science (NOS) issues. The paper describes a series of lesson plans devoted to encouraging students to engage, "unbeknownst to them", in similar reasoning that led scientists to…

The theory of dialogism, developed by the Russian linguist Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) with regard to literature and everyday communication, can be used to improve the teaching of science. Some of Bakhtin's conceptual instruments are helpful in analysing the teaching process, and it is interesting to compare them with former ideas about teaching…

Force in modern classical mechanics is unique, both in terms of its logical character and the conceptual difficulties it causes. Force is well defined by a set of axioms that not only structures mechanics but science in general. Force is also the dominant theme in the "misconceptions" literature and many philosophers and physicists alike have…

In this paper we analyze excerpts of "Paradoxes of the Infinite", the posthumous work of Bernard Bolzano (1781-1848), in order to show that Georg Cantor's (1845-1918) approach to the problem of defining actual mathematical infinity is not the most natural. In fact, Bolzano's approach to the paradoxes of infinity is more intuitive, while remaining…

We argue that beyond metaphors, according to which learning is a process of knowledge acquisition by individual learners (a "monological" approach) or participation to social interaction (a "dialogical" approach), one should distinguish a "trialogical" approach, i.e., learning as a process of knowledge creation which concentrates on mediated…

The implications of history and philosophy of chemistry are explored in the context of chemical models. Models and modeling provide the context through which epistemological aspects of chemistry can be promoted. In this work, the development of ideas and models about acids and bases (with emphasis on the Arrhenius, the Bronsted-Lowry, and the…

Even though philosophical themes in science education have been advocated for several decades, little attention has been paid to how these themes can be contextualized in the teaching of a particular domain of science. The purpose of this paper is to provide an example theoretical framework for applying a philosophical theme, reduction, in…

The crisis in physics education necessitates searching for new relevant meanings of physics knowledge. This paper advocates regarding physics as the dialogue among discipline-cultures, rather than as a cluster of disciplines to be an appropriate subject of science education. In a discipline-culture one can distinguish elements of knowledge as…

Analogy in science knew its successes and failures, as illustrated by examples from the eighteenth-century physics. At times, some scientists abstained from using a certain analogy on the ground that it had not yet been demonstrated. Several false discoveries in the 18th and early 19th centuries appeared to support their caution. It is now clear…

In sharp contrast to the early positivist view of the nature of science and scientific knowledge, Kuhn argues that the scientific enterprise involves states of continuous, gradual development punctuated by comparatively rare instances of turmoil and change, which ultimately brings about a new stability and a qualitatively changed knowledge base.…

Recent papers have drawn a contrast between habits of mind in science and religion and it has been argued that, because of the different nature of these habits of mind, science education and religious education are necessarily in conflict with each other. The present paper draws on research into habits of mind in science and their relationship…