Down to Earth: History and philosophy of geoscience in practice for undergraduate education

Abstract

Undergraduate geoscience students are rarely exposed to history and philosophy of science (HPS). I will describe the experiences with a short course unfavourably placed in the first year of a bachelor of earth science. Arguments how HPS could enrich their education in many ways are sketched. One useful didactic approach is to develop a broader interest by connecting HPS themes to practical cases throughout the curriculum, and develop learning activities that allow students to reflect on their skills, methods and their field in relation to other disciplines and interactions with society with abilities gained through exposure to HPS. Given support of the teaching staff, the tenets of philosophy of science in practice, of conceptual history of knowledge, and of ethics of science for society can fruitfully and directly be connected to the existing curriculum. This is ideally followed by a capstone HPS course late in the bachelor programme.

The Hows and whys of philosophy of science teaching: a comparative analysis

“…Accordingly, it is advisable to teach philosophical ideas by applying them to concrete examples from (contemporary) scientific practice (cf. Green et al 2021;Kleinhans 2021).…”

Teaching philosophy of science that matters

“…Only a few other European countries have similar national requirements, but sometimes there are university-level requirements regarding philosophy of science education. For example, Kleinhans (2021) points out that Utrecht University (in the Netherlands) has a course requirement for philosophy of science-related teaching for science students, and MacLeod (2021) and Boon et al (2022) offer reflections on the compulsory courses in philosophy of science for engineering students at the University of Twente (also in the Netherlands). Lusk (2022) provides a perspective from a residential college of Michigan State University in the U.S., where students can fulfill some of their course distribution requirements by taking a sequence of four HPS courses.…”

“…But the proximate impetuses vary. As Kleinhans (2021) notes, in Utrecht the course requirement in philosophy of science teaching was a direct consequence of concerns about research integrity that followed the Stapel affair of fraud in social psychology.…”

“…De Regt and Koster (2021) point to the importance of engaging students in reflections on the role of (their) science in society. Kleinhans (2021) highlights that students benefit from a deeper understanding of the implications of their field, which can aid in the transition from learning technical skills to applying them in their professional careers, while getting conceptual tools to discuss topics such as causation in complex systems, model building, field work, science communication, scientific norms, and integrity. Green et al (2021) emphasize that their philosophy of science courses do not just aim for students to be better scientists, but also aim at helping them become better informed and more critically engaged citizens, science teachers, consultants, or other types of professionals.…”

“…The contributions to this collection include reflections on teaching philosophy of science for students from a broad variety of educational programs and backgrounds. These range from focused perspectives on teaching students in particular (sub)disciplines -such as the earth sciences (Kleinhans, 2021), geography, biology, chemistry, sports science, mathematics, computer science (Green et al, 2021), electrical engineering, or civil engineering (MacLeod, 2021), to broader perspectives on teaching aspiring medical professionals from a variety of educational backgrounds (Bursten & Strandmark, 2021), to general reflections on teaching students from the (social) sciences at large (e.g. Grüne-Yanoff, 2022;De Regt & Koster, 2021;Lusk, 2022).…”