In this paper I expand on the premises of Jesse Bazzul's thesis in his paper, "Neoliberal ideology, global capitalism, and science education: engaging the question of subjectivity," exploring the implications of the ideologies within the culturally emerging logic of science exposes the incommensurability of intents and purposes in its methods and…

There have been debates about the place of religion in science and in what ways knowledge that is produced through religion can aid in the learning and teaching of science. The discord between science and religion is mainly focused on whose knowledge is better in describing and explaining the reality. Constructivist epistemology seems to give some…

In a series of well-known papers, Chi and Slotta (M. T. H. Chi, 1992, 2005; M. T. H. Chi & J. D. Slotta, 1993; M. T. H. Chi, J. D. Slotta, & N. de Leeuw, 1994; J. Slotta & M. T. H. Chi, 2006; J. D. Slotta, M. T. H. Chi, & E. Joram, 1995) have contended that a reason for students' difficulties in learning physics is that students…

This is a comment on the article "An Essay for Educators: Epistemological Realism Really is Common Sense" written by Cobern and Loving in "Science & Education." The skillful analysis of the two authors concerning the problematic role of scientism in school science is fully appreciated, as is their diagnosis that it is scientism not universal…

We often knowingly teach false science. Such a practice conflicts with a prima facie pedagogical value placed on teaching only what is true. I argue that only a partial dissolution of the conflict is possible: the proper aim of instruction in science is not to provide an armory of facts about what things the world contains, how they interact, and…

In this paper, I consider the relevance of the view of cognitive existentialism to a multi-gendered picture of science education. I am opposing both the search for a particular feminist standpoint epistemology and the reduction of philosophy of science to cultural studies of scientific practices as championed by supporters of postmodern political…

This commentary dialogues with three articles that analyze the same database about science and religion discourse produced 17 years ago. Dialogues in these three articles and this commentary across space and time allow us to develop new and different understandings of the same database and situation. As part of this commentary, I discuss topics…

In his article "Scientists at Play in a Field of the Lord", David Long (2010) rightly challenges our presumptions of what science is and brings forth some of the disjunctures between science and deeply held American religious beliefs. Reading his narrative of the conflicts that he experienced on the opening day of the Creation Museum, I cannot…

In this paper I respond to Long's paper in which he uses an ethnographic snapshot of a rally of scientists against the perceived "dumbing down" effect of the new Answers in Genesis Museum in Kentucky to raise educational concerns about the effects of creationist influence on the science curriculum in American schools. In my response I…

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…

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.…

Responds to "Understanding Nature of Science as Progressive Transitions in Heuristic Principles" by Mansoor Niaz. Concludes that the historical vignettes provided by Niaz provide interesting insights into the nature of science but that the proposed characterizations do not help distinguish things that are more scientific from things that are less…

Discusses Dewey's vision of the scientific mind and analyzes the stereotype of scientific thinking. Explains Dewey's notion of experience and clarifies the difference between ordinary experience and a Deweyan experience. (Contains 27 references.) (YDS)

Examines some key characteristics of science under the headings of elimination of the personal, demarcation from ethics, and denial of reflexivity. Relates these characteristics to an instrumental criterion of knowing which is pervasive in science. Suggests that there are severe limits to the introduction of a more personal, interpretative, and…

The opinion in this paper is that there is a need to reexamine the meaning of constructivism in an age where the concept has come to mean different things to different people. This paper examines one person's understanding of constructivism in order to uncover multiple meanings of the term in ways that ultimately affect teachers' practice in K-12…