Learning By Doing: The history of school experiments (original) (raw)
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The Role of historical experiments in science teacher training: experiences and perspectives
In this paper, I am going to discuss several aspects of the approach that has been applied in the physics teacher education at the University of Oldenburg for almost 25 years. 1 My aim is to show that history of science can play an important role in science education, and that both fields-science education and history of science-can mutually benefit from each other. In doing so, I will briefly sketch methodologically what we are doing in our group with respect to historical research. In the next step, I will discuss how historical experiments can be implemented in science teacher training and what can be achieved with such an attempt. In doing so, I will discuss in detail a compulsory course for future physics teachers and will highlight two examples. Finally, I am going to argue that also history of science as an academic discipline could benefit from a collaboration with science education.
Teaching About Nature of Science Through Historical Experiments
Science: Philosophy, History and Education, 2020
Having students experience historical experiments in the classroom is a powerful tool in teaching about the nature of science. Experiments performed by students support inquiry-based science instruction and have long provided an essential means of producing new scientific knowledge within science itself and throughout its history.
Reconsidering the role of experiment in science education
2001
The idea of "experiment" plays a central role in both popular and philosophical views of scientific practice . Perhaps as a consequence, it als o occupies center stage in framing expectations about student activity an d reasoning in science classes . In this chapter we argue that researcher s and educators should reconsider the implications of focusing too narrowly on experiment as the canonical form of scientific reasoning . Fo r one thing, experimentation is by no means the only form of argumen t on which science rests . Rudolph and Stewart (1998), for example, poin t out that evolutionary biology relies primarily on historical reconstruction, which has a very different structure than experimentation . Fo r another, studies in the philosophy and sociology of science suggest tha t experiment is a complex form of argument deeply embedded withi n domain-specific practices of modeling, representation, and materia l manipulation of the world (e .g ., . Yet psychologica l studies often focus on experiment as a form of hypothetical deductiv e reasoning, ignoring the very practices that set the foundations for suc h reasoning .
Experimentation in science, engineering, and education
Experimentation is used differently in science, engineering, and science education. The aim of many science fairs is to encourage young talent in scientific inquiry. Based on 57 interviews with participants of a German youth science fair, this article points out typical students' conceptions about the procedure and the purpose of experimentation. The analysis of the interview data revealed that the derived concepts firstly depend on each other and secondly reflect the differences in the way of thinking and working between scientists and engineers. Since experiences with experimentation provide the basis for learning and thus for the conceptual knowledge about science, we conclude that it is essential, for science education, to distinguish the engineer's and the scientist's point of view and to implement more authentic inquiry in science lessons at school.
Historical Experiments in Physics Teaching
US-China Education Review A, 2014
Is it possible to reproduce historical experiments in the classroom? The outcome of our project will be presented-We analyzed what kind of historical experiments are described in our textbooks and if students are interested in historical physics experiments. Are historical experiments really important for understanding science? The project was focused on the problem of historical experiments in teaching physics. In the textbooks, some of them are only briefly described. We studied how important it is to teach our students the history of scientific theories and understand that theories must be checked against experimental measurements. Students have to learn scientific methods in order to find out the basic principles of physics, and it can be demonstrated that the (historical) experiment is the right way of how to do it. We tested the possibility to teach and explain some topics in physics through historical experiments mostly designed with modern equipment or simple tools from everyday life. The important factor is the involvement of students themselves into this activity.
EXPERIMENT. This entry traces the life of experiment from its emergence in the early seventeenth century to its transformation to a collective activity after World War II. The topics discussed include the rise of experimental philosophy and its institutional expression in the new scientific societies of the seventeenth century; the spread and character of experimentation in the eighteenth century; the quest for precision and the rise of laboratories in the nineteenth century; and the emergence of a new form a collective experimental life after World War II.
What is the Purpose of This Experiment? Or Can Students Learn Something From Doing Experiments?
Journal of Research …, 2000
Historically there have been many claims made about the value of laboratory work in schools, yet research shows that it often achieves little meaningful learning by students. One reason, among many, for this failing is that students often do not know the``purposes'' for these tasks. By purposes we mean the intentions the teacher has for the activity when she/he decides to use it with a particular class at a particular time. This we contrast with the``aims'' of a laboratory activity, the often quite formalised statements about the intended endpoint of the activity that are too often the``opening lines'' of a student laboratory report and are simply the``expected'' speci®c science content knowledge outcomesÐnot necessarily learnt nor understood. This paper describes a unit of laboratory work which was unusual in that the teacher's purpose was to develop students' understanding about the way scienti®c facts are established with little expectation that they would understand the science content involved in the experiments. The unit was very successful from both a cognitive and affective perspective. An important feature was the way in which students gradually came to understand the teacher's purpose as they proceeded through the unit.