Abstract
If issues in the history and philosophy of science and those related to science, technology and society are generally accepted in policy, how ought these be handled in practice? Mandate in policy does not guarantee implementation in practice. Indeed, HPS and STS have for decades been marginalized in the curriculum. Subject areas designated to teach components of HPS and STS, such as design and technology, social studies and science, seem preoccupied with other aspects of the curriculum and rarely get around to HPS and STS. This study aimed at eliciting pre-service physics teachers’ perspectives on using HPS to address quantum mechanics and scientific literacy. Through questionnaires, observation of and participation in a physics methods class, 16 pre-service teachers were asked to identify topics they considered problematic to teach or learn. They were challenged to identify those topics that could effectively be taught or learned from HPS. The pre-service teachers agreed that HPS and STS were more appealing for teaching some topics, such as quantum mechanics, which is the focus of this article. This intervention in physics teacher education demonstrates the importance of using specific methods in physics instruction to demonstrate the value of HPS in scientific literacy.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abd-El-Khalick F, Lederman N (2000) The influences of history of science courses on students’ views of the nature of science. J Res Sci Teaching 37:1057–1095
Aduriz-Bravo A (2004) Methodology and politics: a proposal to teach the structuring ideas of the philosophy of science through the pendulum. Sci & Educ 13:717–731
Allchin D (1997) Rekindling phlogiston: from classroom case study to interdisciplinary relationships. Sci & Educ 6:473–509
Allchin D (2004) Pseudohistory and pseudoscience. Sci & Educ 13:179–195
American Association for the Advancement of Science (1989) Project 2061: science for all Americans. AAAS, Washington, DC
Ausubel D (1968) Educational psychology: a cognitive view. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York
Beeth ME (1998) Facilitating conceptual change learning: the need for teachers to support metacognition. J Sci Teacher Educ 9:49–61
Bevilacqua F, Giannetto E (1995) The history of physics and European physics education. Sci & Educ 5:235–246
Binnie A (2001) Using the history of electricity and magnetism to enhance teaching. Sci & Educ 10:379–389
Blanton P (2003) Constructing knowledge. Phys Teacher 41(2):125–126
Brush SG (1974) Should the history of science be rated X? Science 183:1164–1172
Brush SG (2000) Thomas Kuhn as a historian of science. Sci & Educ 9:39–58
Bunge M (2003) Twenty-five centuries of quantum physics: from Pythagoras to us, and from subjectivism to realism. Sci & Educ 12:445–466
Cobern WW (1993) Contextual constructivism: the impact of culture on the learning and teaching of science. In: Tobin K (ed) The practice of constructivism in science education. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, pp 51–69
Cutcliffe SH (2000) Ideas, machines, and values: an introduction to science, technology, and society studies. Roman & Littleford, New York
Driver R (1983) The pupil as scientist? Open University Press, Milton Keynes, UK
Driver E, Leach J (1993) A constructivist view of learning: children’s conceptions of the nature of science. In: Yager R (ed) The science, technology and society movement. National Science Teachers Association, Washington, DC, pp 103–112
Driver R, Asoko H, Leach J, Mortimer E, Scott P (1994) Constructing scientific knowledge in the classroom. Educ Res 23:5–12
Duit R, Treagust D (2003) Conceptual change: a powerful framework for improving science teaching and learning. Int J Sci Educ 25:671–688
Feigenberg J, Lavrik LV, Shunyakov V (2002) Space scale: models in the history of science and students’ mental models. Sci & Educ 11:377–392
Floden RE (2003) Research on effects of teaching: a continuing model for research on teaching. In: Richardson V (ed) Handbook of research on teaching. American Educational Research Association, Reston, VA, pp 3–16
Fuller S (1993) Rhetoric, and the end of knowledge: the coming of science and technology studies. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI
Galili I, Hazan A (2001) The effect of a history-based course in optics on students’ views about science. Sci & Educ 10:7–32
Gaskell J (2001) STS in a time of economic change: what’s love got to do with it? Can J Sci Math Technol Educ 1:385–398
Gaskell PJ, Hepburn G (1997) Integration of academic and occupational curricula in science and technology education. Sci Educ 81:469–481
Gess-Newsome J (2002) The use and impact of explicit instruction about the nature of science and science inquiry in an elementary science methods course. Sci & Educ 11:55–67
Glas E (1998) Fallibilism and the use of history in mathematics education. Sci & Educ 7:361–379
Goodney DE, Long CS (2003) The collective classic: a case for the reading of science. Sci & Educ 12:167–184
Gunstone RF (1992) Constructivism and metacognition: theoretical issues and classroom studies. In: Duit R, Goldberg F, Niedderer H (eds) Research in physics learning: theoretical issues and empirical studies: proceedings of an international workshop. Institut die Pedagogik der Naturwissenschaften an der Universitat Kiel, Kiel, pp 129–140
Hafner R, Culp S (1996) Elaborating the structures of a science discipline to improve problem-solving instruction: an account of historical-genetics’ theoretical structure, function and development. Sci & Educ 5:331–355
Heering P (2000) Getting shocks: teaching secondary school physics through history. Sci & Educ 9:363–373
Henze I, Van Driel J, Verloop N (2004) The development of pedagogical content knowledge of science teachers in the context of educational innovation. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Vancouver, BC, April 2004
Hewson PW (1981) A conceptual change approach to learning science. Eur J Sci Educ 3:383–396
Hewson P, Thorley N (1989) The conditions of conceptual change in the classroom. Int J Sci Educ 11(Special Edition):541–553
Hodson D (1998) Teaching and learning science: towards a personalized approach. Open University Press, Buckingham
Hottecke D (2000) How and what can we learn from replicating historical experiments? A case study. Sci & Educ 9:343–362
Irwin AR (2000) Historical case studies: teaching the nature of science in context. Sci Educ 84:5–26
Jegede OJ (1995) Collateral learning and the eco-cultural paradigm in science and mathematics. Stud Sci Educ 25:97–137
Kelly G (1955) The psychology of personal constructs. W.W. Norton & Co., New York
Kipnis N (1996) The “Historical-Investigative” approach to teaching science. Sci & Educ 5:277–292
Kipnis N (1998) Theories as models in teaching physics. Sci & Educ 7:245–260
Kovacs L (1996) Great experiments and old apparatus in education. Sci & Educ 5:305–308
Kragh H (1992) A sense of history: history of science and the teaching of introductory quantum physics. Sci & Educ 1:349–363
Kubli F (1999) Historical aspects in physics teaching: using Galileo’s work in a new Swiss project. Sci & Educ 8:137–150
Kuhn TS (1970) The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Kumar D, Fritzer P (1998) A study of science-technology-society education implementation in the state of Florida. J Soc Stud Res 21:6–13
Lederman NG (1992) ‘Students’ and ‘teachers’ conceptions of the nature of science: a review of the research. J Res Sci Teaching 29:331–359
Leite L (2002) History of science in science education: development and validation of a checklist for analysing historical content of science textbooks. Sci & Educ 11:333–359
Mason SF (1962) A history of the sciences. Macmillan, New York
Matthews MR (1994) Science teaching: the role of history and philosophy of science. Routledge, New York
Matthews MR (2000) Time for science education: how teaching the history and philosophy of pendulum motion can contribute to scientific literacy. Kluwer, Dordrecht, Netherlands
Matthews MR, Gauld C, Stinner A (2004) The pendulum: its place in science, culture and pedagogy. Sci & Educ 13:261–277
Misgeld W, Ohly KP, Strobl G (2000) The historical-genetical approach to science teaching at the Oberstufen-Kolleg, Bielefeld. Sci & Educ 9:333–341
Mitcham C (1999) Why science, technology, and society studies? Bull Sci Technol Soc 19:128–134
Nashon SM (2005) Reflections from pre-service science teachers on the status of physics 12 in British Columbia. J Phys Teacher Educ Online 3(1):25–32
Nielsen WS, Nashon SM (2004) Factors impacting teaching of senior science and mathematics in small rural British Columbia schools: perspectives from principals, teachers and students. Proceedings of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Vancouver, BC, April 2004
Nott M, Wellington J (1993) Your nature of science profile: an activity for science teachers’. School Sci Rev 75(270):109–112
Posner GJ, Strike KA, Hewson PW, Gertzog WA (1982) Accommodation of a scientific conception: towards a theory of conceptual change. Sci Educ 66:211–227
Pospiech G (2003) Philosophy and quantum mechanics in science teaching. Sci & Educ 12:559–571
Reis JC, Guerra A, Braga M, Freitas J (2001) History, science and culture: curricular experiences in Brazil. Sci & Educ 10:369–378
Reiss F (2000) History of physics in science teacher training in Oldenburg. Sci & Educ 9:399–402
Resnick L (1963) Programmed instruction and the teaching of complex intellectual skills: problems and prospects. Harvard Educ Rev 33:439–471
Rutherford FJ (2001) Fostering the history of science in American science education. Sci & Educ 10:569–580
Shapiro B (1994) What children bring to light: a constructivist perspective on children’s learning in science. Teachers College Press, New York
Shulman L (1986) Those who understand: knowledge growth in teaching. Educ Res 15:4–14
Solbes J, Traver M (2003) Against a negative image of science: history of science and the teaching of physics and chemistry. Sci & Educ 12:703–717
Stinner A (1996) Providing a contextual base and a theoretical structure to guide the teaching of science for early years to senior years. Sci & Educ 5:247–260
Stinner A, McMillan BA, Metz D, Jilek JM, Klassen S (2003) The renewal of case studies in science education. Sci & Educ 12:617–643
Stuewer RH (1998) History and physics. Sci & Educ 7:13–30
Turner S, Sullenger K (1999) Kuhn in the classroom, Lakatos in the lab: science educators confront the nature-of-science debate. Sci Technol Hum Values 24:5–30
Velentzas A, Halkin K, Skourdoulis C (2006) Thought experiments in the theory of relativity and in quantum mechanics: their presence in textbooks and popular science books. Sci & Educ (published online, May 20, 2006):1–18
Waks L (1999) The global network society and STS education. Bull Sci Technol Soc 19:46–48
Wang HA, Cox-Petersen AM (2002) A comparison of elementary, secondary and student teachers’ perceptions and practices related to history of science instruction. Sci & Educ 11:69–81
Wang HA, Marsh DD (2002) Science instruction with a humanistic twist: teachers’ perception and practice in using the history of science in their classrooms. Sci & Educ 11:169–189
Wideen M, Mayer-Smith J, Moon B (1998) A critical analysis of the research on learning to teach: making the case for an ecological perspective on inquiry. Rev Educ Res 68:130–178
Zeichner JM, Gore JM (1990) Teacher socialization. In: Houston WR, Habermas M, Sikula J (eds) Handbook of research on teacher education. Macmillan, New York, pp 329–348
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nashon, S., Nielsen, W. & Petrina, S. Whatever happened to STS? Pre-service physics teachers and the history of quantum mechanics. Sci & Educ 17, 387–401 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-007-9085-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-007-9085-7