|
rlm@2
|
1 #+title: Science Minus Science
|
|
rlm@2
|
2 #+author: Dylan Holmes
|
|
rlm@2
|
3 #+email: ocsenave@gmail.com
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
4 #+description: The debate between teaching scientific facts and the scientific way to think.
|
|
rlm@2
|
5 #+SETUPFILE: ../../aurellem/org/setup.org
|
|
rlm@2
|
6 #+INCLUDE: ../../aurellem/org/level-0.org
|
|
rlm@2
|
7
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
8 I'm worried that science classes are becoming unscientific.
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
9 Typically, science classes are supposed to teach not only how the world works, but also how
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
10 to think scientifically. Lately, however, our mentality has been
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
11 marginalized to make time for teaching students all the theory that
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
12 eventual college students should know.
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
13 #I've noticed that classrooms
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
14 #have been heavily emphasizing our information, rather than our
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
15 #mentality. They haven't forgotten about teaching ways to think, but
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
16 #they insist that teachers familiarize their students
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
17 #with theories that every college student should know.
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
18 Because our theories are complex,
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
19 with intricacies that would be cruel and unusual to
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
20 inflict upon unsuspecting pupils, such a curriculum requires teachers to be frugal with the facts: they must prune tangential
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
21 subjects and pare whatever's left, watering down complicated results
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
22 into simplified half-truths. They must avoid the imperfect boundaries
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
23 of our knowledge, instead concentrating on an idealized and sanitized
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
24 account of what we know. But what's the result of such abbreviation?
|
|
rlm@2
|
25
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
26 #Needs must when the devil drives, of
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
27 #course--but what is the end result?
|
|
rlm@2
|
28
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
29 #As a result of this shift, they have been saddled with the
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
30 #difficult task of disseminating complex scientific theories in a short
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
31 #period of time
|
|
rlm@2
|
32
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
33 # and it is less important to teach
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
34 #the empirical mindset than to impart our accumulated scientific
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
35 #knowledge. Thus, because the field is so vast nowadays, teachers are
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
36 #obliged to be frugal with the facts: they must prune tangential
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
37 #subjects and pare whatever's left, watering down complicated results
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
38 #into simplified half-truths. Needs must when the devil drives, of
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
39 #course--but what is the end result?
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
40
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
41 In modern science classrooms, students must still swallow a deluge of
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
42 unfamiliar scientific dogma in time to regurgitate it onto an
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
43 exam. In their forced hurry, they cannot stop to ponder various
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
44 alternatives which scientists have methodically eliminated over the
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
45 course of centuries; instead, they must simply trust that science has
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
46 done what it purports to have done--or, faster, simply stamp out their
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
47 own conjectural, critical instincts.
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
48
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
49 Facility with
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
50 scientific concepts and language is
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
51 not such a bad skill to have.
|
|
rlm@2
|
52 By the end of such a course, students might be able to recite the
|
|
rlm@2
|
53 tenets of our current scientific creed and might employ those tenets
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
54 when answering carefully formulated questions. I am worried, though, because even if
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
55 our students get their facts straight, they will still have acquired at most
|
|
rlm@2
|
56 only our pre-processed truths, and nothing of the empirical machinery
|
|
ocsenave@5
|
57 that produced them.
|
|
rlm@2
|
58
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
59 In my opinion, this shortchanges our students, and we ought to re-evaluate our priorities. Surely the essential mark of the
|
|
ocsenave@8
|
60 scientist is not his ability to recount the latest model of reality,
|
|
ocsenave@8
|
61 but rather his pervasive inquiry and methodical, empirical
|
|
ocsenave@5
|
62 approach to obtaining answers? Instead of canonizing the latest
|
|
ocsenave@8
|
63 theories, shouldn't we be stimulating a zeal for scrutinizing
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
64 them? Might we even want to /postpone/ handing our
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
65 students canned knowledge, at the very least until we've taught them enough
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
66 about how to be curious, how to acquire knowledge for themselves, how
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
67 to be analytical---in short, how to live like scientists?
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
68
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
69
|
|
ocsenave@5
|
70
|
|
ocsenave@5
|
71 #Surely the shibboleth of the
|
|
ocsenave@5
|
72 #scientist is not his ability to recount the bleeding-edge depiction of
|
|
ocsenave@5
|
73 #reality--after all, theories are transient and revolutions expected--but
|
|
ocsenave@5
|
74 #rather his pervasive inquiries about the world and his methodical,
|
|
ocsenave@5
|
75 #empirical approach to answering them? Indeed, don't we recognize the
|
|
ocsenave@5
|
76 #scientist by his lack of allegiance to the status quo, by the way he
|
|
ocsenave@5
|
77 #scrutinizes even his own theories with utmost irreverence?
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
78
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
79 When we value data absorption over methodical reason, we give our
|
|
rlm@2
|
80 students a fragmentary and moreover inexplicable impression of
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
81 nature, one which will probably evaporate outside the classroom. That's an approach to science which hardly sounds like science.
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
82 Instead, let's teach students how to think, so they can build a
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
83 framework that will house the rest of their knowledge. Let's stop
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
84 rushing to teach students everything we know, and let them grapple
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
85 with Nature themselves for a while. Let's train them to be curious rather than
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
86 complacent learners. The results will be worth our effort.
|
|
rlm@2
|
87
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
88 #I ask you: how much of science is left in that?
|
|
ocsenave@9
|
89
|
