An Eloquent and Argumentative Treatise on the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science for School Science

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Notes

1. It is important to acknowledge that I am very familiar with Derek Hodson's work. He was the instructor for several courses that I took while in graduate school (MEd and PhD programs) and he served as thesis supervisor for my doctoral thesis in education. We also have coauthored articles and book chapters. I feel deeply indebted to him for the support he has given me (and others) over the years since I met him in 1991. I am currently teaching a graduate course, which he originally designed and on which this book is greatly based.

2. His referencing is broad, from sources in many countries, including Canada, the United States, the UK, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Australia.

3. Readers should refer to Table 1 for my summary of each chapter of Professor Hodson's book.

4. He also discusses, to some extent, relationships between professional science and technology and, as well, “citizen” science and technology.

5. The grid's horizontal axis spans a continuum ranging from rationalist through naturalist perspectives on theory negotiation in the sciences. Rationalists support highly systematic methods of science, including rational judgments about theory. Naturalists, by contrast, assume that the conduct of science is highly situational and idiosyncratic, depending on various factors, including psychological, social, cultural, and political influences. The vertical axis, meanwhile, depicts a continuum reflecting the truth value of knowledge, with realist through antirealist positions. Realists claim that scientific knowledge corresponds with reality, whereas (extreme) antirealists claim that each person's constructions are valid. More moderate antirealist positions, such as instrumentalism, posit that acceptable scientific knowledge is that which has been socially negotiated and shown to be effectively applicable (e.g., for making predictions). These continua have “ordinal” scales. On the rationalist to naturalist continuum, for example, placing a mark close to the rationalist end indicates a strong naturalist view about science. Placing a mark about midway between the two poles, by contrast, indicates that science has moderately rationalist and naturalist features.

6. As someone interested in economic issues relating to science and science education (e.g., Bencze, 2008), I would have liked to see more here about such contentious topics. However, it should be noted that this book is to be the first of a “trilogy” of books about HPSS, with the latter two titles being: Teaching and Learning about Science: Language, Theories, Methods, History, Traditions and Values and Going Beyond STS Education: Politicizing Students, Politicizing Teachers—both to be published by Sense Publishers. More of a critical nature may appear in these works.