About us
Our History
The International History, Philosophy, and Science Teaching Group was formed in 1987. The group stages biennial international conferences; it is associated with the research journal Science & Education; it arranges the periodic publication of special issues of other academic journals devoted to 'History, Philosophy and Science Teaching'; and it supports the periodic publication of scholarly anthologies based on journal contributions and conference presentations.
Group Aims
The group is concerned to promote the betterment of school and university science and mathematics education by making them informed by the history, philosophy, and sociology of science and mathematics. It has a particular interest in bringing these spheres of knowledge into teacher-education programmes.
The group through its activities and journal promotes:
- The utilization of historical, philosophical and sociological scholarship to clarify and deal with the many curriculum, pedagogical and t heoretical issues facing contemporary science education.
- Collaboration between the communities of scientists, mathematicians, historians, philosophers, cognitive psychologists, sociologists, and science educators, and school and college teachers.
- The inclusion of appropriate history, philosophy, and sociology of science courses in science teacher-education programmes.
- The dissemination of accounts of lessons, units of work, and programmes in science, at all levels, that have successfully utilized history, philosophy, and sociology.
- Discussion of the philosophy and purposes of science education, and their place in, and contribution to, the intellectual and ethical development of individuals and cultures.
Executive Structure
| President: | Michael Matthews (m.matthews@unsw.edu.au) |
| Past-president: | William McComas (mccomas@uark.edu) |
| President Elect: | David Rudge (david.rudge@wmich.edu) |
| Secretary: | Pierre Boulos (boulos@uwindsor.ca) |
| Treasurer: | Robert Carson rcarson@montana.edu) |
| Council Members: | Peter Heering (peter.heering@uni-oldenburg.de) Fanny Seroglou (seroglou@eled.auth.gr) |
| Student Member: | Ronald Schulz (rmschulz@shaw.ca) |
| Members of the Nominating Committee: | Elisabeth Cavicchi (ecavicch@mit.edu) Ismo Koponen (ismo.koponen@helsinki.fi) Igal Galili (igal@vms.huji.ac.il) Mark Lattery (lattery@uwosh.edu) |
| Programme Officer: | Don Howard (dhoward1@nd.edu) |
This executive will serve its term through to the June 2009 Notre Dame conference.
Conferences
The group staged its first international conference in Tallahassee in 1989, then Kingston (1992), Minneapolis (1995), Calgary (1997), Pavia (1999), Denver (2001), Winnipeg (2003), Leeds (2005) and Calgary (2007). The tenth conference will be held at Notre Dame University (2009).
The conferences are attended by about 200 researchers and teachers. On average about 25 countries are represented at each conference. Full Proceedings have been printed, or made available on CD Rom, for each conference.
Journal
The group is associated with the journal Science & Education. It is published by Springer and is now (2007) in its Sixteenth Volume. The journal's editor is Michael R. Matthews (m.matthews@unsw.edu.au). The Editorial Committee is a distinguished group of forty science and mathematics educators, historians and philosophers of science, cognitive psychologists, scientists and philosophers of education. The committee members are drawn from fourteen countries; they include two past presidents of the US History of Science Society, five past presidents of the US Philosophy of Education Society, a former president of the US Philosophy of Science Association, and eighteen current or former editors of major international journals in science education, philosophy of education, and the history and philosophy of science.
A feature of the journal has been the publication of Special Issues on important and topical subjects. These have been overprinted and made available to non-subscribers as independent publications.
See the list of Special Issues on our journal page
For more about the journal, please go to the Journal page
To Join
Anyone who would like to be considered a member of IHPST should complete the downloadable Interim Membership Form and return it to IHPST before the deadline. Please read the page on Formalisation & First Election
By-Laws
We draw attention to some By-Laws. You may be able to read this PDF file in your browser window. Otherwise, please download it and open with a PDF Reader.