Teaching the Philosophy of Science with Non-Scientific Examples
ABSTRACT: This essay explores the benefits of utilizing non-scientific examples and analogies in teaching philosophy of science courses, or general introductory courses. These examples can help resolve two basic difficulties faced by most instructors, especially when teaching lower-level courses: first, they can prompt students to take an active interest in the class material, since the examples will involve aspects of the culture well-known to the students; second, these familiar, less-threatening examples will lessen the students' collective anxieties and open them up to learning the material more easily. To demonstrate this strategy of constructing and employing non-scientific examples, a lengthy analogy between musical styles and Kuhn's theory of scientific revolutions is developed.
Without a doubt, one of the most difficult tasks in teaching undergraduate philosophy courses is motivating the students to take an active interest in the abstract and complex issues normally presented. One obvious method of overcoming this dilemma is to provide numerous historical examples and analogies of the relevant philosophical problem, since concrete instances are frequently less complicated than general descriptions, articulate the main points more clearly, and have the added bonus of being more "personal" and relatable. Thus, if one were presenting, say, Imre Lakatos theory of scientific research programs, describing the conflict between the Ptolemaic and Copernican views would serve as an excellent backdrop for the introduction of Lakatos' ideas. Nevertheless, if the students are unfamiliar and/or bored by the kinds of examples employed, the strategy will, of course,...
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...eme be introduced in the development section? // (rock) Can the song last for more than three minutes?
4) Techniques for answering questions (and standards of success): (class.) Yes, but as long as it doesn't undermine the recapitulation. // Yes, but don't expect much radio air play, or video exposure.
5) Exemplars (successful previous application of theory): (class.) a sonata form movement by one of the acknowledged master, such as Haydn, Mozart, etc. // a hit song by one of the great rock bands, such as Beatles, Rolling Stones, etc.
6) Incommensurability: 'theme' in classical sonata form is designed for maximum development capacity, and is (usually) in either tonic or dominant key // 'theme' in rock music is usually designed for maximum melodic capacity, must allow lyrics to be set to the theme, and may not strictly follow the tonic-dominant tonal scheme.
Many people would go as far as to say that a professor’s job is to deliver knowledge to students, and a student’s job is to absorb it, without reservation. Pirsig emphasizes how this relationship can fail through his description of Phaedrus’ time in the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago. One student in Phaedrus’ philosophy class questions Aristotle’s views of rhetoric stating that within the text, “‘There are some dubious statements,’” and the professor responds, “‘We are not here to learn what you think…We are here to learn what Aristotle thinks,’” (Pirsig 371). Basically, Pirsig is saying that there is a problem with the conventional professor-student relationship. This is because when a professor begins to feel vulnerable, like in the situation above, the professor transforms into a sovereign leader. When students live under an oppressive regime in the classroom they find themselves incapable to learn on their own terms. I agree that this relationship does need to change, a point that needs emphasizing since so many believe that if the system has operated this long, it can continue to work. I think Phaedrus is mistaken because he overlooks the real reason why the student is struggling with the professor. The issue that this lone student and Phaedrus both experience is that they are confronting the knowledge that the Professor has avowed individually. Instead, to gain more use out of the knowledge John Henry Newman would argue that these students should work with others. This will enable them to, “to adjust together the claims and relations of their subjects of investigation,” (Newman 77). Newman would surely extend this same argument that collaboration must take place between opinions on a certain subject matter, such as Aristotle. The adjustment of claims, which Newman discusses, improves education for the student. Their
...History and World History, a professor only has a small portion of one class session to teach, for example, the Cold War. The devotion to a topic in such a large scale could become even more desperate because now teachers have to teach a whole new world of vocabulary along with the historical vocabulary that is necessary for students to succeed in future history classes.
...how useful the demonstration would be in a classroom. The author’s tone is formal and academic in nature, without heartfelt appeals or attempts to persuade by emotion.
From early 1770's to the end of the eighteenth century the concept of the symphonic style and sonata style dominated most of the music composed. These forms ,employed countless times by Mozart and Haydn, stayed relatively constant up until the end of the eighteenth century when Beethoven began to extend this Viennese classical tradition. Many musicologists have put forward the idea
Zinn, H. (2007). Why Students Should Study History. In W. e. Au, Rethinking Our Classrooms, Volume 1 (pp. 179-181). Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools.
Theme is the underlying power beneath a story; the “force” that makes the whole experience worthwhile. Theme is “an idea or message that the writer wishes to convey” (Holt 874). A theme can be either stated or implied. A stated theme is a theme “that the other expresses directly in his work (protic.net); an implied theme is a theme “that is not directly stated in the work” (protic.net). As mentioned before, both of these stories have an implied theme, which now is revealed to mean that the author of the story insinuated it. Themes exist in all stories (verbal or written) and can be long, short, true or false. “Earth people will beat out any other intelligent life-form in any and all competitions” is a theme, but “good always beats evil” is one too. “Once upon a time . . .” stories have themes too, except they are more one-dimensional. For example,...
In the United States, the average child goes through public funded schools that have a basic curriculum. According to the Texas Education Agency, some of the subjects include science, mathematics, social studies, English, and more. Nowhere in the subject is religion included. The basic curriculum is made in order to give students skills, knowledge, and to help develop the minds of the future. In science class, evolution is taught either briefly or detailed. It is taught because it is a popular theory that did not seem to choose a certain religion. So why believe that religion and science can be taught together? The evolution of Earth and the universe can be believed in any way an individual chooses.
...y thinks, but is greatly influenced by the society’s conflicts and the mindsets of its people. In the case of Plato and Epictetus, the philosophies that they came up with were formed by the loss of faith in the system of government, life as a slave, and personal experiences in exile. These experiences helped these philosophers to create a set of guidelines that got them through their ordeals and live out the rest of their lives. In understanding these works, we are able to understand how historical events and ideas of the time helped to lead history down the path that it did. Following the change in thought and how different philosophies develop in different environments also allows use to gauge how conditions improve or decline over time. Being able to see the patterns in the past may very well help us predict whether life in the future will flourish or decline.
The sonata form was an essential key in composing music. According to The Britannica article “The Sonata form is crucial in the symphony’s evolution, is based on the dramatic apposition and eventual reconciliation of contrasting keys” ...
The first point that I disagreed with in Freire’s essay was that all classes should have open discussions because some classes such as mathematics classes or science classes are concrete subjects that cannot be disproven. These
A student with a compulsive longing for the explanations of why and how things work is a science professor’s dream student. Thus, it would make sense for the first few steps within the science building to intensify that essential characteristic of its students by its very construction. The foyer of the science building evokes this sense of scientific wonder and rational thought through its methodical design, which is embodied at its center by a Foucault pendulum.
“Science is not a body of facts. Science is a state of mind” (Angier 490). While both essays, “The Canon” by Natalie Angier, and “Scientific Literacy and the Habit of Discourse” by Thomas W. Martin, discuss the fact that science is practiced through actions and is not a set of facts to be learned; these two articles approach the topic differently. By using different rhetorical modes and having alternate styles, these two articles appear different; but they contain the same foundation of science and make similar points. Even though the article’s main points have similarities, the essays also contain many differences through their rhetorical mode, approach, and appeals.
The role of language in science was taken for granted, however, this chapter by Sutton (1998) addressed this issue by highlighting the influential role of language in science education. Sutton’s focus was mostly on the written aspect of language, however, there are other aspects that are influencing science education and consequently affecting the teaching and learning processes. One of these aspects is the language science is represented with, such that the language science is being represented in textbooks might be different than the students’ or teachers’ mother tongue. This raises challenges for teachers and for students, whereby teachers had to bridge the gap between scientific terminologies and students’ mother tongue. To elaborate, from my experience in practicum, I noticed students struggled to express their thoughts using accurate English and scientific terminologies. For example, once I asked students to describe the life cycle of butterflies based on a figure that I had provided, a
There has been plenty of discussion on which teaching methods best engage students in a classroom setting. The proposed methods come in variety, but one method that has had success recently is the Freirean method (Santos 363, 364). The Freirean method is composed of dialogical classes, classes that are based around discussion, whose intentions are to provide relevant social and technological education to students. For example, Wildson Dos Santos writes in his article “Scientific Literacy: A Freirean Perspective as a Radical View of Humanistic Science Education,” “beyond identifying chemical products in garbage, or the separation methods adopted in the recycling plant, it is necessary to discuss why there are people in our society living in landfills”
Highly abstract concepts, such as jurisprudence and sovereignty, oftentimes cause high school students much struggle when trying to thoroughly understand such conceptual ideas. To teach these theoretical concepts, one must not only equivalently utilize David Ausubel’s Expository teaching model, but also retain an overall knowledge of other valuable strategies related to Ausubels’s model (Woolfolk, 2004, p. 281). To Ausubel, the most significant idea is that of the advance organizer, a statement of introduction that aids students in organizing the information about to be presented. Also to a teacher’s benefit are the ideas needed to form a concept, such as exemplars, defining features, irrelevant features, non-examples, and prototypes. Introducing the advance organizer, presenting ideas in terms of specific examples, and linking the content back to the advance organizer is Ausubel’s model for expository teaching (Woolfolk, 2004, p. 283).