Research on Student Learning in Science: A Wittgensteinian Perspective

Heckler, Wendy Sherman

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-7654-8_43

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The meaning of a given epistemic practice is made intelligible and recognizable not by its definition but rather by the uses and purposes of the practice for the given task. This requires looking closely at human activity and discourse (Heckler, ; Ostman & Wickman, ; Wittgenstein, ). Second, we propose a set of epistemic practices of engineering for education.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epistemic Practices of Engineering for Education

2017

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Engineering offers new educational opportunities for students, yet also poses challenges about how to conceptualize the disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices of the disciplinary fields of engineering. In this paper, we draw from empirical studies of engineering in professional and school settings to propose a set of epistemic practices of engineering that can inform curriculum development, teacher education, and research in science and engineering education. We examine the ways that these practices emerge from the work of engineering and serve to guide problem solving across a range of engineering fields. The proposed epistemic practices for education take into consideration social contexts of engineering, the salience of evidence for decision making, the types of tools and strategies used to construct knowledge, and need for creativity and innovation. The article concludes with suggestions for research in engineering education.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epistemic Practices of Engineering for Education

2017

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“…Kuhn's view of the importance of language and lexicons in shaping science, its communities, and even its worldviews, owes much to Wittgenstein's language games (see [53,54]). Such views, aligned with SoS, would be an interesting direction in which to further push the ideas of how NOS could make better use of Wittgensteinian language games, as suggested by some researchers [20,47].…”

Section: Science Of Science: An Acquaintance Deserving To Be Better Kmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Some authors have criticised NOS for assuming that science has an "essence" or "nature", and that such an essence can be consolidated in a form of scaffolding for the purposes of teaching [20,47]. A recent study that compared consensus NOS and one of its alternatives, Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) on NOS [22,23,27] raised similar critiques against them both [20].…”

Section: Consensus Nos: Some Supposed Fault Linesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature of Science (NOS) Being Acquainted with Science of Science (SoS): Providing a Panoramic Picture of Sciences to Embody NOS for Pre-Service Teachers

Koponen

2021

Education Sciences

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Understanding about nature of science is important topic in science education as well as in pre-service science teacher education. In science education, Nature of Science (NOS), in its different forms of educational scaffoldings, seeks to provide with students an understanding of features of scientific knowledge and science in general, how scientific knowledge changes and becomes accepted, and what factors guide scientific activities. For a science teacher, deep and broad enough picture of sciences is therefore of importance. This study attempts to show that the research field called Science of Science (SoS) can significantly support building such a panoramic picture of sciences, and through that, significantly support NOS. The SoS approaches the structure and dynamics of science quantitatively, using scientific documents (e.g., publications, reports, books and monographs and patent applications) as trails to map the landscape of sciences. It is argued here that SoS may provide material and interesting cases for NOS, and in so doing enrich NOS in a similarly significant way as history, philosophy and sociology of science (HPSS) scholarship has done thus far. This study introduces several themes based on SoS that are of relevance for NOS as they were introduced and discussed in a pre-service science teachers’ course. The feedback from pre-service teachers shows that introducing SoS, with minimal additional philosophical interpretations and discussions, but simply as evidential facts and findings, sparks ideas and views that come very close to NOS themes and topics. Discussions related to nature of science, and specific educational NOS scaffoldings for it, can find a good companion in SoS; the latter providing facts and evidence of thee structure and dynamics of sciences, the former providing perspectives for interpretations.

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“…In relation to research on students' learning in science, Wittgenstein's philosophy has been invoked in at least four broad ways over the last several decades (Heckler 2014). Early dissenters to the emerging "conceptual change" theory of cognitive learning in science as analogous to rational theory replacement in the discipline of science argued against the plausibility of novice students' ability to logically justify and appropriate scientifically superior counterparts to their naïve and unworkable explanations of the world.…”

Section: Influence In Science Education Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although Wittgenstein's philosophy has been cited in service of studying student learning in science in various ways, the claim has been made that ultimately these references miss the point of his arguments (Heckler 2014). To understand why, it is important to appreciate the undercurrents of anti-scientism (not antiscience) at work in Wittgenstein's writings.…”

Section: The Problem Of Scientismmentioning

confidence: 99%