Science SCIENCE STUDIES AND SCIENCE EDUCATION Education
Teaching the Nature of Science through Scientific Errors
DOUGLAS ALLCHIN Minnesota Center for the Philosophy of Science and Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Received 23 June 2011; accepted 24 April 2012 DOI 10.1002/sce.21019 Published online 26 June 2012 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).
ABSTRACT: Error in science is a prime occasion to teach the nature of science, especially the central feature of tentativeness. Error types also reflect corresponding methodologies of science, critical for practicing science and (in a context of scientific literacy) analyzing its claims. Effective efforts in teaching about error will ideally be informed by earlier educa- tional perspectives and a schema for inventorying and organizing error types. Approaches using student-directed inquiry have limits, whereas guided-inquiry historical case studies seem appropriate vehicles. On a larger scale, one may also envision a prospective learning progression on successively deeper understandings of error in science. Sample case studies and opportunities for further reading are identified. C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 96:904–926, 2012
ERROR AND THE NATURE OF SCIENCE If the goal is to teach “how science works” (Board of Science Education, 2011; OECD, 2009), then it seems equally important to teach, on some occasions, how science does not work. Imagine teaching law and law enforcement without crime. Or medicine without disease. One needs to understand how health can fail or how laws can be broken if one is to understand how the relevant systems function properly. Biologists and engineers are already familiar with cases of loss of function as a strategy for research and for teaching structure and function (Bechtel & Richardson, 1993, Petroski, 1994, 2006). So, too, for the nature of science (NOS). Every erroneous conclusion in science is a potential occasion for learning “scientific practices,” or how scientists build reliable claims.
Correspondence to: Douglas Allchin; e-mail: [email protected]