In this article, the author describes his intellectual growing-up and how Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA) entered into his intellectual frame and became more prominent in his philosophical-educational world. He states that for someone who set out to be a classroom science teacher, he has been inordinately fortunate in, so to…

This article argues that the Macmillan and Garrison concept of teaching called erotetics is not successful because it is not reducible to four recognized types of teaching. These types, which are discussed, include teaching that..., teaching how..., teaching to..., and teaching the.... (MT)

Briefly reviews the history of the philosophy of education, from the Sophists to John Dewey, in order to explain the development of experiential education and some of its philosophical assumptions. Explains why experiential education is epistemologically sound. (SB)

The contextual approach to teaching is generally recognized as a reasonable and desirable strategy to enhance student learning in science. Using several cognitive and learning theories together with various philosophical considerations, I identify five distinct contexts that are important in engaging learners: the theoretical, practical, social,…

This article uses the notion of professional identity within the framework of actor network theory to understand didactic practices within three faculties in an institution of higher education. The study is based on a series of interviews with lecturers in each faculty and diaries of their didactic practices. The article focuses on the use of a…

Investigators influenced by Anglo-American epistemology have frequently misinterpreted Piaget's genetic constructivism as an empirical psychology, seeing knowledge acquisition as a process in which representations of the world come into increasingly close correspondence with an ontologically unproblematic external reality. Both this interpretation…

Pickles replies that Smith's critique masks the concrete experience of everyday understanding. The issue of education is not about the transmission of information, but one about how we produce and reproduce our social world. Education must permit rational discourse and decision making within the context of a moral community. (CJH)

Responds to Jim Garrison regarding his views on school science epistemology. Argues that the goal of science education is to "convey some understanding of scientific practice as it occurs in the everyday world in which we live." (Author/YDS)

Explores the postmodern critique of higher education, which presents a challenge to discard the contemplative conception of knowledge and promotes a pragmatic conception of inquiry. Discusses how higher education curricula, particularly scientific inquiry, can be renewed, taking into account this understanding of knowledge but also acknowledging…

Discusses the hermeneutic and epistemological dimensions of science, and investigates the role that this discussion might play in science education. After a brief review of two main variants of hermeneutic conceptions of science, a general outline is given of the "existential-ontological notion of science." Draws conclusions for a new…

Philosophers of education need a methodology for ensuring that what they teach does not contain cultural evils. What is needed is a criterion by which cultural practices can be evaluated so that educators know what to teach. Somatic knowledge can help in making these distinctions. (Contains 17 references.) (Author)

Michel Serres is a provocative and unorthodox thinker, very little known in the English-speaking world, although he is one of the best-known contemporary French philosophers. Serres' interdisciplinary writing constructs themes that can be traced across literature, philosophy, science, mythology and painting, borrowing ideas and approaches from…

This paper offers an introduction to the philosophy and science of embodied learning, conceived as both the stabilizing and expansionary process that sustains order and novelty within learners' worlds enacted through observing and describing. Embodied learning acknowledges stability and change as the purposeful conjoined characteristics that…

The Dreyfus (2001) account of seven stages of learning is considered in the context of the Dreyfus (1980s) account of five stages of skill development. The two new stages, Mastery and Practical Wisdom, make more explicit certain themes implicit in the five-stage account. In this way Dreyfus (2001) encourages a more reflexive approach. The themes…

In "What's Within? Nativism Reconsidered" (1999) Fiona Cowie addresses three questions: (1) What is nativism? (2) What is meant by calling some trait "innate"? and (3) What types of evidence should be offered when claiming innateness? This review concentrates on these questions as they pertain to Chomsky's faculties-based account of language…