An Understanding-Grounded Approach to Science Education (original) (raw)

2020, Environmental & Architectural Phenomenology

In this essay, I distinguish between two contrasting approaches to science teaching, which I name knowledge-grounded and understanding-grounded. In the knowledge-grounded approach, the student is asked to acquire and to apply knowledge with little guidance on how to develop the necessary understanding to make that knowledge personally real. In contrast, the understanding-grounded approach seeks to make knowledge more personally vivid and meaningful by bringing the student to an overall understanding of the subject, within which relevant knowledge is situated and takes on a deeper, more comprehensive, first-person significance. Drawing on British philosopher J.G. Bennett’s insights into the nature of scientific activity, I illustrate how the understanding-grounded approach appeals to the four aspects of scientific activity that Bennett identifies as contact, vision, knowledge, and technique. To provide a thematic focus, I reflect on the implications of understanding-grounded and knowledge-grounded approaches for sustainability education. I argue that the understanding-grounded approach has the advantage of being more inclusive and less hierarchical, allowing a greater number of students to advance toward the teacher’s own state of expertise.

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