Models are often used when teaching science. In this paper historical models and students' ideas about genetics are compared. The historical development of the scientific idea of the gene and its function is described and categorized into five historical models of gene function. Differences and similarities between these historical models are made…

Physics education reform movements should pay attention to feminist analyses of gender in the culture of physics for two reasons. One reason is that feminist analyses contribute to an understanding of a "chilly climate" women encounter in many physics university departments. Another reason is that feminist analyses reveal that certain styles of…

In physics teaching experimentality is an integral component in giving the starting point of knowledge formation and conceptualization. However, epistemology of experiments is not often addressed directly in the educational and pedagogical literature. This warrants an attempt to produce an acceptable reconstruction of the epistemological role of…

Despite volumes written in the name of the new and fundamental feminist project in philosophy of science, and conclusions drawn on the strength of the hypothesis that the feminist project will boost progress toward cognitive aims associated with science and rationality (and, one might add, policy decisions enacted in the name of these aims), the…

We argue that beyond metaphors, according to which learning is a process of knowledge acquisition by individual learners (a "monological" approach) or participation to social interaction (a "dialogical" approach), one should distinguish a "trialogical" approach, i.e., learning as a process of knowledge creation which concentrates on mediated…

Despite its frequent use, there is little understanding of the concept of differential among upper high school and undergraduate students of physics. As a first step to identify the origin of this situation and to revert it, we have done a historic and epistemological study aimed at clarifying the role and the meaning of the differential in…

According to Allchin (2003), Lawson (2002) tried to shoehorn the history of science into a preconceived philosophical category, the hypothetico-deductive method (HD).Lawson replied (2003) that discovery is based on HD because that's the way the brain works, and accused Allchin of shoehorning science into another method, blind search and induction.…

This essay is an updating of one that was published exactly two decades ago; in the intervening years there has been a revival of interest in positivism as a historical phenomenon in epistemology and philosophy of science (some references to which are given), but there also has been heightened awareness of the various weaknesses of the positivist…

This paper describes the transcendental method of Bernard Lonergan and its relevance to science education in general, and to physics education in particular. Lonergan formulated a cognitional theory, based upon the self-assembling dynamic invariant structure of human knowing, that unfolds the complex relation among knowing, objective knowledge,…

This paper conveys information about a Physics laboratory experiment for students with some theoretical knowledge about oscillatory motion. Students construct a simple pendulum that behaves as an ideal one, and analyze model assumption incidence on its period. The following aspects are quantitatively analyzed: vanishing friction, small amplitude,…

Mathematical theories are essential for explanations in physics, chemistry and engineering. These theories often incorporate functions that are defined by the irrelation to other variables in the theory but not with reference to experimental observations. The wave function in quantum mechanics is perhaps one of the best known example of such…

The present work is concerned with one of the most successful books popularizing astronomy of the last half of the 19th century, published in France under the title "L' Astronomie Populaire". The book was translated into Greek and was the first book, out of 100, which was published in order to be a part of a popular library meant to educate the…

The scientific world-conception is properly understood as an enlightenment philosophy only if the current reassessment of the historical Vienna Circle(as opposed to the caricature still prevalent in the popular philosophical imagination) is once more extended to comprehend not only its thorough-going epistemological anti-foundationalism, but also…

The history of science shows that for each scientific issue there may be more than one models that are simultaneously accepted by the scientific community. One such case concerns the wave and corpuscular models of light. Newton claimed that he had proved some properties of light based on a set of minimal assumptions, without any commitments to any…

Recent research literature in science education, science curriculum documents, and science methods texts have been highly influenced by constructivist views of how students learn science. But the widespread and often uncritical acceptance of constructivism in science education does not reflect the heated debate between constructivists and…