IHPST Newsletter, May 2004Eighth IHPST Group International ConferenceThe eighth conference of the International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group will be held in Leeds, England, July 15-18, 2005. The conference is being held in conjunction with the British History of Science Society conference. Sessions of both conferences will be available to participants, and there will be some shared social events. Professor Harry Collins, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Cardiff, will be one of the plenary speakers. He is the author of numerous papers in Science Studies and Science Communications. Recently he co-edited The One Culture?: A Conversation about Science (University of Chicago Press). Deadline for submission of 500 word Abstracts is the end of January 2005 (email to: ihpst2005@blueyonder.co.uk.). Registration fee will be approximately USD220. University College accommodation will be about USD65 per day, or USD45 with shared facilities. Local hotels can also be booked at a reduced rate. Details about conference can be found at web site: www.ihpst2005.leeds.ac.uk/ The conference chair is John Osborne of King's College, the conference secretary is Mick Nott. The organizing committee includes Jim Donnelly (Education, Leeds), Graeme Gooday (Philosophy, Leeds) and Rick Duschl (Education, Rutgers). To be put on the conference email list, email: ihpst2005@blueyonder.co.uk. Science & Education Journal Volume 13, Number 3 + SubscriptionThe journal is published by Kluwer Academic Publishers and is associated with the IHPST Group. Volume 13 Nos. 3, has just been published. The Contents are as follows:
Book Reviews Book Notes Subscriptions are USD80 (1 year), USD150 (2 years), or USD210 (3 years). Subscriptions can be made at the order form (this not Secure sign in SSL), or by sending cheque to the IHPST Secretary, Michael Matthews at School of Education Studies, University of NSW, Sydney 2052, Australia. Science & Education Special Issues: Prospective Theme TopicsThe journal Science & Education has over the years published a number of thematic issues. Some of these have been overprinted by the publishers and made available as separate publications. 1996, 'Religion and Science Education', Science & Education 5(2) Already in production there are special issues for 2005:
Other Special Issues are being planned, and contributions are invited. Manuscripts are reviewed in the normal manner (usually three reviewers). Authors can contact the guest editors listed below, or the journal editor, for further details.
Nature of Science Curriculum Requirements: The International SituationTwo colleagues (Bill McComas, University of Southern California and Joanne Olson, Iowa State University) are preparing an update of the study they conducted some years ago to examine and classify Nature of Science (NOS) elements found in various national science education standards documents. That study proved very helpful to many researchers. However it was heavily oriented toward English-speaking nations; thus, they would like to broaden the analysis, including updating the English language materials. Therefore, if readers have access to recent national science education standards documents from any nations beyond those typically cited (in hardcopy or on the web) please contact Bill or Joanne as soon as possible. They are particularly interested in such standards from countries in South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe.
William F. McComas, Ph.D.
Director, Science Education Programs Rossier School of Education - WPH 1001e University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089-0031 (213) 740-3470 (213) 740-3671 (fax) www.scienceeducation.org New Harvard University General Education CurriculumHarvard University has revised its General Education programme and curriculum. The rationale for the University's General Education programme was famously spelt out in the 'Red Book', General Education in a Free Society (J.B. Conant 1945). The programme had a significant influence on science education practice in the 1950s and 1960s through the impact of its textbook, the Harvard Case Histories in Experimental Science (J.B. Conant ed., 1948). This case study approach to science teaching was followed in the Harvard Project Physics Course (Klopfer & Watson 1957), and by Leo Klopfer in his History of Science Cases for Schools (Klopfer 1960). The just-completed review of the General Education programme is available on the web at: www.fas.harvard.edu/curriculum-review/report.html. In part the review says:
"In the realm of general education, it proposes that the Core Program be succeeded by a curriculum that both provides a rigorous foundation to a student's education and enhances choice. A new set of integrative, foundational courses would translate specialized knowledge for Harvard College students, while going beyond the disciplinary perspectives that define our current Core Program. In these "Harvard College Courses", faculty would take on the responsibility of defining what we believe our students will need to know and (equally critically) how they may best learn, so that their education in fast-changing fields may continue well after graduation. Such courses would be aimed to expand the horizons of both faculty and students; introduce bodies of knowledge, concepts, and major texts; develop and reinforce critical skills in reasoning and expression; and prepare distinctive course materials for use in, and possibly beyond, Harvard College."
International Pendulum Project (IPP)The IPP is a collaborative endeavour involving fifty scholars and teachers from twenty countries. Participants include physicists, historians, philosophers, Piagetian psychologists, science teachers and educators. The pendulum played a central role in the development of Western science. It was crucial in the establishment of Galileo's new science, it had a central place in Newton's physics, it was pivotal in the development of classical mechanics, and the precision pendulum clock enabled the refinement of astronomy and the advancement of geodesy including the solution of the longitude problem and ascertaining the oblate shape of the earth The pendulum is a near-universal topic in school primary and secondary science.But its full potential for learning about physics, and the relationship between science, technology, society and culture is seldom realised. The IPP aims to promote enriched teaching of the pendulum in science courses, and to encourage cross-disciplinary teaching about the pendulum and its wider social ramifications. It is concerned to show how such teaching might contribute to a better and more coherent understanding of physics, especially mechanics, and how such teaching might enhance children's understanding of the nature of science, and of its interplay with mathematics, technology, society and culture. An initial IPP conference was held in Sydney in 2002. Revised papers from that conference, plus others, will be published in special issues of Science & Education in 2004. Further collaborators are encouraged, especially teachers who might trial teaching materials, or contribute teaching materials to the project. Further details of the IPP are available at: www.arts.unsw.edu.au/pendulum/ IPP, Research FellowshipsThe IPP has secured limited funds to support a number of research fellowships to be based in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The fellowships will minimally cover air fare to Australia, and provide partial or full accommodation support. The fellowships are most suited to folk taking paid leave from their own institutions, but it is possible that there may be partial or full assistance with living expenses, depending on disbursement of the funds. The duration of fellowships will be from 6-12 weeks. Ideally the fellowship holders will have experience in teaching physics, they will have some competence in the history and philosophy of science, and they will have some experience in educational research. The fellowship holders will be expected to conduct either scholarly or applied research, and it is expected that publications will result from the work. The UNSW library is extraordinarily well stocked with science education books and journals, and has significant holdings in history and philosophy of science. The holders will work with the project coordinator. Currently there are ten primary (elementary) schools participating in IPP-informed teaching. This project is being conducted by Rick Connor. It is anticipated that the fellowships will support the preparation and trialing of high school IPP-informed materials. Applications or inquiries should be sent to the project coordinator, A/Professor Michael R. Matthews (m.matthews@unsw.edu.au). Applications should address the above mentioned qualifications and project expectations, and the preferred time of appointment. Indian Conference on Science, Technology and Mathematics Education, Dec.13-17, 2004.The conference is sponsored by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India. It is being held at: International Centre, Dona Paula, Goa, India, from December 13-17, 2004 The conference will present research in science, technology and mathematics education. It has united themes in the cognitive, pedagogical, historical, philosophical and socio-cultural aspects of the sciences. There will be review talks complemented by paper and poster presentatations. Expected review presenters are:
* Knowledge representation (John F. Sowa, ex-IBM) Conference fees are: International participants USD300, student USD200; Indian participants INR 3000, student 2000. The fees will cover accommodation and meals for five days, conference materials and proceedings. Inquiries, including registration details, at:
Jayashree Ramadas, Convener
Organising Committee, epiSTEME-1 email: episteme@hbcse.tifr.res.in fax: 91-22-2556 6803, 2558 5660 www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/episteme 7th IHPST Conference Proceedings (Winnipeg July 2003)Proceedings of the 7th IHPST Conference (Don Metz, editor) are now available on CD. The disc contains 80 papers, 970 pages, an author index and a paper table of contents. Adobe Acrobat 6.0 is included which can be used as a search facility. Cost is USD10, air mail included. Orders can be placed from link at the publications section of this newsletter. ConferencesMarch 31-April 5, 2004. National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Vanvcouver. Details at: http://www.educ.sfu.ca/narstsite/ March 26-29, 2004, Philosophy of Education Society (US), Toronto. Details at http://cuip.net/pes/ July 7-10, 2004. Australasian Science Education Research Association, Armidale NSW, Australia. Details at: www.une.edu.au/asera/ July 12-14, 2004.'John Locke: A Conference Marking the 300th Anniversary of His Death'. Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The opening day includes presentations on his religious, scientific and educational views. Information at: cpci@griffith.edu.au November 18-21, 2004. Joint History of Science Society & Philosophy of Science Association (USA) Conference, Austin Texas. Information at: www.hssonline.org/meeting/ December 13-17, 2004. International Conference on Science, Technology and Mathematics Education, Goa, India. Tata Research Institute, Mubai. Details at: http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/episteme March 18-21, 2005. Philosophy of Education Society (USA), San Francisco. Details at: http://cuip.net/pes/ March 31-April 3, 2005. National Science Teachers Association (USA), Dallas Texas April 4-7, 2005. National Association for Research in Science Teaching (USA), Dallas Texas. Information at: www.nsta.org July 15-18, 2005. International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group conference, Leeds, England. Details at www.ihpst.org Recent ResearchApart from contributions to Science & Education the following are some papers published in recent years that bear upon the research concerns of the IHPST Group. Suggestions for up-dating this list should be sent to the Editor at m.matthews@unsw.edu.au Lin, H.-S. & Chen, C.-C.: 2002,'Promoting Preservice Chemistry Teachers' Understanding about the Nature of Science through History', Journal of Research in Science Teaching 39(9), 773-792. Rudolph, J.L.: 2002,'Portraying Epistemology: School Science in Historical Context', Science Education 87(1), 64-79. Rudolph, J.L.: 2002, Scientists in the Classroom: The Cold War Reconstruction of American Science Education, Palgrave, New York. Greca, I.M. & Moreira, M.A.: 2002,'Mental, Physical, and Mathematical Models in the Teaching and Learning of Physics', Science Educationi 86(1), 106-121. Davis, B. & Sumara, D.: 2003,'Constructivist Discourses and the Field of Education: Problems and Possibilities', Eduational Theory 52(4), 409-428. Justi, R. & Gilbert, J.: 2003,'Teachers' Views on the Nature of Models', International Journal of Science Education 25(11), 1369-1386. Kournay, J.A.: 2003,'A Philosophy of Science for the Twenty-First Century', Philosophy of Science 70(1), 1-14. Lawson, A.E.: 2003,'The Nature and Development of Hypothetico-Predictive Argumentation with Implications for Science Teaching', International Journal of Science Education 25(11), 1387-1408. Osborne, J., Collins, S., Ratcliffe, M., Millar, R. & Duschl, R.: 2003,'What "Ideas-about-Science" Should be Taught in School Science? A Delphi Study of the Expert Community', Journal of Research in Science Teaching 40(7), 692-720. Allchin, A.: 2003,'Scientific Myth-Conceptions', Science Education 87(3), 329-351. Matthews, M.R.: 2004,'Thomas Kuhn's Impact on Science Education: What Lessons can be Learnt?', Science Education 88(1), 90-118. Siegel, H.: 2004,'The Bearing of Philosophy of Science on Science Education, and Vice Versa: The Case of Constructivism', Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 35A, 185-198. Book NotesThomas Nickles (ed.), Thomas Kuhn, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003. ISBN 0 521 79648 2, 298 pps, USD13. This anthology is part of the Cambridge series 'Contemporary Philosophy in Focus'. Contributors include: Michael Friedman (on Kuhn and Positivism), Gary Gutting (Kuhn and French philosophy), John Worrall ( Kuhn 'versus' Popper and Lakatos), Joseph Rouse (Kuhn on scientific practice), Barry Barnes (Kuhn and sociology of science), Thomas Nickles (Kuhn and normal science), Nancy Nersessian (Kuhn and conceptual change), Peter Barker, Xiang Chen and Hanne Andersen (Kuhn on concepts), Richard Grandy (Kuhn and world changes) and Helen Longino (Kuhn and feminist accounts of science). Nickles says that his 'aim in this volume is to present the leading ideas, problems, and influences on, and of, Thomas Kuhn in a manner that is accessible to the general reader while also provoking discussion among specialists'. Thomas Kuhn has had a staggering impact both inside and outside the academy. His 1962 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (revised 1970) has sold over one million copies and has been translated into two dozen languages. His work has impacted on just about all academic disciplines, including science education (see the special issue of Science & Education vol.9 nos.1-2, 2000). What launched Kuhn on to the international stage is the 1965 London Colloquium in the Philosophy of Science: he attended as a relatively minor figure, and left as a member of the philosophical pantheon in the company of Karl Popper, Imre Lakatos and Stephen Toulmin (see Imre Lakatos & Alan Musgrave (eds.) Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, 1970). Paradoxically, although he had no training in philosophy and describes himself as an amateur in the field, it is his philosophical claims about epistemology, theory change in science, rationality and ontology that have attracted the greatest attention. His historical work has had very little impact. Nickles provides a very good introduction to the volume of papers, giving a thumbnail sketch of Kuhn's personal and scholarly history. He rightly draws attention to the pedagogical origins of Kuhn's major ideas, namely Kuhn's appointment as a lecturer in the Harvard General Education Programme in the early 1950s. In this course he followed James Conant's 'Case Studies' approach to the history of science, and focused on the Copernican Revolution. Kuhn describes the experience as fundamental to the formation of his own ideas on theory change in science. Contributors to the anthology deal well with the old philosophical issues, the ones raised in the London Colloquium of forty years ago, and they also deal with the newer philosophical problems that Kuhn worked on the final two decades of his life (see his essays in The Road Since Structure, J. Conant & J. Haugeland (eds.) 2000). These new problems include the centrality of scientific practice (instead of ideas) for theory appraisal; the cognitive underpinnings of concept formation; and the different ways to understand incommensurability. The attention to cognitive science and ways in which it bears upon neo-Kuhnian understanding of concept formation and theory development is a feature of the anthology. Jürgen Renn (ed.) 2001, Galileo in Context, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 0 52100103 x, 432 pps, USD18. This anthology contains seven chapters (including one of 120 pps by the editor and colleagues), plus a 100 page Appendix reproducing late nineteenth century papers of Caverni, Favaro and Wohlwill on Galileo's experimental practice. The chapters are concerned to dispel the myth of Galileo as an isolated pioneer, and to explore instead the intellectual, cultural and social contexts that substantially shaped Galilean science. In particular attention is paid to the influence of contemporary engineer-scientists on Galilean experimental physics, the influence of artists on the visual representation techniques used in Galilean astronomy, and the power structures of Galileo's day and their influence on his career and the way in which scientific information was organised and communicated in Early Modern Europe. Renn, in his Introduction to the anthology, rejects the traditional science/context, individual/society, theory/institutions, psychological/sociological distinctions that underpin the long-standing debates between internalist historians of science (Koyré, Drake, etc) and externalist historians (Zilsel, Hessen, Bernal, etc). Instead of these distinctions, and their associated problematic, Renn and contributors, set out to: 'Instead of studying contexts in order to determine the supposedly decisive factors of Galileo's life and science, it seems more enlightening to take Galileo rather as a probe for exploring a cultural system of knowledge, that is, the shared knowledge of the time with its social structures of transmission and dissemination, its material representations, and its cognitive organisation' (p.2). The lengthy opening essay in the collection, in part, draws long overdue attention to the impact of Guidobaldo del Monte on Galileo's scientific and practical work. It is reasonably well known that del Monte was Galileo's patron, securing for him the positions of professor of mathematics first at Pisa (1589) then at Padua (1592); it is much less known that del Monte was an exemplar of the emerging profession of engineering where mathematical and practical competences were fused. It is in this tradition, that combined mind and hand, that Galileo was placed and in which he excelled beyond all others. Renn makes the point that del Monte (and Stevin, Kepler, Tartaglia, Cardano etc) were not just artisans, and not just engineers, but were 'elite' engineers who consciously reflected on the new kinds of knowledge that engineering practice was creating. This lead to new institutions and academies, and eventually had impacts on university curriculum and programmes. Rivka Feldhay contributes a chapter on 'Recent Narratives on Galileo and the Church, or The Three Dogmas of the Counter Reformation'. Feldhay criticises the work of three well known contemporary 'conflictualists': William Shea, Richard Blackwell and Marcello Pera, who he identifies them as being in the 'conflict' tradition initiated by Andrew White (A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology (1965)). The conflict these authors recognise is between Galileo's science and the tenets of the Catholic Counter-Reformation initiated at the Council of Trent (1557 -). As Feldhay says: 'from the perspective of these writers, Galileo's encounter with the church became a struggle over the monopoly of the interpretation of Scripture. The results of such a struggle were obviously inevitable, given the balance of power between the two sides' (p.221). Feldhay rejects this view, saying that the authoritarianism of the Tridentine church was not complete and uniform, that there was still a de facto pluralism in the catholic church. Therefore 'in trying to understand the condemnation of the Copernican books in 1616 and Galileo's trial in 1633, it is not enough to point at the Inquisition as the source of evil that embodied the whole question of Church power [as contemporary conflictualists do]' (p.227). For Feldhay, this is an essentialist, not an historical, analysis of the Galileo affair. Lisa Jardine, The Curious Life of Robert Hooke: The Man Who Measured London, Harper Collins, New York, 2003. ISBN 0 00 714944 1, 422 pps. Lisa Jardine is the daughter of Jacob Bronowski (as she has occasion to tell in the first chapter of this book). She is also Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of London, and the author of a number of popular books on intellectual and scientific history. Among the latter is Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution (Little Brown, 1999). Hooke (1635-1703) is seen as one of the lesser figures of the Scientific Revolution. He is known to science students largely due to the law of deformation that bears his name (for an elastic deformation, stress is proportional to strain). There is just one 'Hooke's Law', and it is not a major one. There is nothing else in science that bears his name. But nevertheless, as an early study recounts: 'Hooke was one of the outstanding figures of his age. His mind ranged over the entire scientific studies of his time, and there was hardly any branch of science which he did not consider, and to whose advancement he did not contribute' (R.T. Gould, The Marine Chronometer, 1923, p. 24). Hooke was, for instance, the author of one of the earliest books on microscopy (Micrographia (1665), and the author of the earliest systematic work on springs and deformation) De Potentia Restitutiva or of Spring (1678). He was the first to state clearly that the motion of heavenly bodies must be regarded as a mechanical problem not one of self-movers. He approached in a remarkable manner Newton's discovery of the inverse square law of universal gravitation, and indeed claimed credit for Newton's discovery. Likewise he claimed credit for Huygens' creation of the pendulum clock. He made a similar claim against Boyle for the law of gaseous compression that bears the latter's name. Hooke was so often the bridesmaid, but constantly claimed to be the bride. In addition Hooke was an architect of some consequence, who worked with his cousin Christopher Wren on many projects after the 1666 Great Fire of London. He was a member of the small group of Oxford and London 'philosophers' that met informally at Gresham College (others included Wren and Boyle) which would become in 1661 the Royal Society. Hooke was elected a Fellow of the Society in 1663, and held the position of Curator of Experiments for the duration of his life. Jardine writes in the first chapter that: 'He lies the challenge for anyone who embarks on writing a life of Robert Hooke. How does one convey the genius of a man whose versatility condemned him, in each field of his interest, to miss the mark by a whisker the man who, in the helter-skelter race to make the fundamental discoveries of modern science and technology, always took second place?' (p.3). With ten pages of colour plates, numerous black-and-white prints, the use of 300 odd references, and a fine writing style Jardine more than meets the challenge faced by biographers of Hooke. BooksThe following are some recent books bearing upon IHPST interests:
Limón, M. & Mason, L. (eds.): 2002, Reconsidering Conceptual Change: Issues in Theory and Practice, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Nowell MA. ISBN 1-4020-0494-X Inwood, S.: 2002, The Man Who Knew Too Much: The Strange and Inventive Life of Robert Hooke 1635-1703, Macmillan, London. Fara, P.: 2003, Newton: The Making of Genius, Picador, London Cornwell, J.: 2003, Hitler's Scientists: Science, War and the Devil's Pact, Penguin, London. Browne, J.: 2003, Charles Darwin: The Power of Place, Pimlico, London. Cross, R.T. (ed.): 2003, A Vision for Science Education: Responding to the Work of Peter Fensham, RoutledgeFalmer, London. Fl¿istad, G. (ed.): 2003, Contemporary Philosophy: A New Survey, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. Nola, R.: 2003, Rescuing Reason: A Critique of Anti-Rationalist Views of Science and Knowledge, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. Arianrhod, R.: 2003, Einstein's Heroes: Imagining the World through the Language of Mathematics, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Queensland. Guerrini, A.: 2003, Experimenting with Humans and Animals: From Galen to Animal Rights, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. Pinnick, C.L., Koertge, N. & Almeder, R.F. (eds.): 2003, Scrutinizing Feminist Epistemology: An Examination of Gender in Science, Rutgers University Press. Aczel, A.D.: 2003, Entanglement: The Unlikely Story of How Scientists, Mathematicians, and Philosophers Proved Einstein's Spookiest Theory, Penguin, New York. Aczel, A.D.: 2003, Pendulum: Léon Foucault and the Triumph of Science, Atria Books, New York. Publications for SaleThe following publications are available from the IHPST Group:
To purchase any of the above, see publications section to go to order form etc. Future Newsletter ItemsItems for inclusion in the IHPST Newsletter are appreciated. These can be items for the 'Recent Research' listing, or short Book Notes, or Coming Conference details. Please email newsletter material to: A/Professor Michael Matthews at m.matthews@unsw.edu.au IHPST Email ListThis list is newly created. It is anticipated that it will be used sparingly, perhaps once a month, to send group information such as contained in this Newsletter. It is not a discussion forum list. If you receive this email message and wish to remove yourself from the IHPST list, send a message to: majordomo@explode.unsw.edu.au. In the body of the message, not the subject line, simply write: 'unsubscribe ihpst-group'. Alternatively, if you have friends or colleagues who would like to subscribe to the list, tell them to send a message to: majordomo@explode.unsw.edu.au. In the body of the message, not the subject line, simply write: 'subscribe ihpst-group'. |