WHAT ABOUT ¿THE¿ SCIENTIFIC METHOD? A SURVEY APPLIED TO MIDDLE AND SECONDARY GEOSCIENCE TEACHERS

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2022

Authors

Clara Vasconcelos (Author) FCUP; Tiago Ribeiro (Author) FCUP

Conference proceedings International

Title: Education and New Developments 2022 ¿ Volume I

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-010-499

DOI: 10.36315/2022v1end106

Abstract (EN): <jats:p>"The debate over whether there is a single unifying scientific method or a variety of methods, each of which is applied to a different discipline of science, is still a difficult one. Popper idea of refutation was a criticism to the inductive method and claimed the need to submit theories to falsification. His thesis ended up being a demarcation of science and pseudoscience. But the question remains: do all sciences follow the same scientific method? Namely because discoveries in geology have to overcome time and space enormous scales, geologist have been called by Lord Kelvin as ¿stamp collectors¿. Having started as a field science, and even having been denied by Hutton as an experimental science, modelling in geology only took place at the end of the 19th century by the hand of Sir James Hall. The need to mirror scientists¿ methods is a demand of inquiry-based teaching, but few geology teachers have correct knowledge about the method used by geologists. In the present study, a survey was undertaken online with the main objective of investigating what is teachers¿ knowledge about the (geo)scientific method. Participants were 108 geology middle and secondary teachers in Portugal. The majority of respondents were women (n=79; 73.1%) and the average age was 46 years old. All participants were graduated, but 51 (47.2%) had a master and 5 (4.6%) had a Ph.D. The results showed erroneous conceptions that are commonly reflected in inquiry-based teaching classrooms, namely regarding the scientific method but also about investigative competencies and geology as an experimental science. The majority of the teachers¿ said that there only exists one scientific method for all sciences (n=49; 45.4%) and that it has a fundamentally linear nature from observation to conclusion (n=54; 50.0%). The scientific method was claimed as needed to allow the confirmation of hypothesis by many teachers (n=44; 40.7%). Some participants referred Uniformitarianism as a principle that justifies the historical and interpretive reasoning of geologist (n=48; 44.4%), but not so many referred the analogic reasoning (n=28; 25.9%). Teachers also referred to critical and systemic thinking as scientific competencies (n=72; 66.7%) and gave less importance to others like observation and argumentation (n=27; 25.0%). Results analysis corroborate that an inquiry-base teaching methodology requires history of geology and an epistemological reflection to be integrated in teachers¿ initial training and professional development. The epistemology behind geology classes has to be taught to eradicate alternative conception about the scientific method."</jats:p>

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific