There has been much recent commentary on integration in health care professional education. This commentary is of importance to physiology education as integration often touches on integration between preclinical and clinical sciences. There are different forms of integration, from horizontal to vertical to spiral, and different theories underpin…

This article presents the author's response to Hisham Ghassib's paper entitled "Where does creativity fit into a productivist industrial model of knowledge production?" In his paper, Ghassib (2010) explores the epistemological ramifications of science becoming a major industry, which is generally called the knowledge industry. In particular, he…

The need for creativity in the sciences has, from time to time, been questioned. Thus, Ghassib's (2010) argument that creativity is critical to performance in the sciences, and hence organizational effectiveness in a knowledge production economy, is important. Moreover, the proposition that scientific creativity is based on knowledge and…

It has been suggested that the enterprise of developing mechanistic theories of the human cognitive architecture is flawed because the theories produced are not directly falsifiable. Newell attempted to sidestep this criticism by arguing for a Lakatosian model of scientific progress in which cognitive architectures should be understood as theories…

Prize-winning scientist and bestselling author James Trefil explains why every U.S. citizen needs to be "scientifically literate" and, therefore, why schools must teach the fundamental principles of scientific literacy to every student. He lays out those principles straightforwardly, so that educators--and everyone who is interested in…

In the USA there is a contemporary discourse of crisis about the state of education and a parallel discourse that lays a large portion of the blame onto the poor quality of educational research. The solution offered is "scientific research." This article presents critiques of the core assumptions of the scientific research as secure argument.…

Some feminists have become discouraged because the theoretical and conceptual changes leading to a feminist science have not yet occurred. A scheme has been developed which charts the phases through which the disciplines in the social sciences and humanities progressed before reconceptualization from the new scholarship on women transformed those…

Examines evolutionary trends, specifically trends in size, complexity, and fitness. Notes that documentation of these trends consists of either long lists of cases, or descriptions of a small number of salient cases. Proposes the use of random samples to avoid this "saliency bias." (SR)

Presents and defends the thesis that either teaching or research alone is not of much value without its counterpart. The argument is not that of teaching versus research but rather how to strengthen the link between teaching and research in higher education. (PR)

Argues that the limited results achieved so far by empirical educational research are a result of a fundamental difference in the generalized concepts used therein and the abstract concepts used in the natural sciences. Discusses the work of Galileo and Newton to clarify the difference between generalization and abstraction. (DMM)

This rejoinder to commentaries on the authors' original article (EC 630 380) concerning the balance between science and politics in the education of students with learning disabilities first clarifies and expands particular points, then addresses each of the four commentaries individually. The authors urge increasing scientific research and…

Asserts that science instruction should have students behaving as real scientists. Discusses benefits of high school science research programs for precocious youths. (PR)

This column for high school teachers, written by high school teachers, discusses several interesting anecdotes related to the formulation of laws and the determination of constants. Science history is presented in a manner that can enliven classroom presentations and aid in understanding the principle itself. (Authur/SA)