"What is truth?" Pontius Pilot asked Jesus of Nazareth. For many educators today this question seems quaintly passe. Rejection of "truth" goes hand-in-hand with the rejection of epistemological realism. Educational thought over the last decade has instead been dominated by empiricist, anti-realist, instrumentalist epistemologies of two types:…

Argues that science students should be taught to acknowledge the parallel structure of knowledge and belief, and recognize that science requires a presuppositional foundation that is itself not verifiable in order to reintroduce a valuable discussion on the meaning of science and its impact on life. (Contains 87 references.) (Author/WRM)

Some interesting work currently being done in science education research is with scientifically misconceived ideas about the causes and mechanisms of natural phenomena. Though not stated explicitly, it can be inferred from the corpus of this misconception research that an assumption of homogeneity among students is made, even where there is…