Hm, of course scientific ideas evolve which means that (a - if
trivially) they change over time, and (b) sometimes they have not
reached a mature state within the community: there may be several
competing versions. A certain amount of this is necessary for
'progress'. Of course, scientific ideas are not always judged purely
in objective terms both because each 'judge' interprets through their
existing frameworks AND because being human personal biases etc. are
involved. As teachers we would like to offer a reasonably clear and
coherent picture to our students - but too much tidying-up might
provide logical simplification at the cost of obscuring the human
nature of science: and that could well put many students off. They
need to know that science is a rational business, but also that there
is room in science for flair, style, and the making of human mistakes.

Keith



>--- "Dr. Keith S. Taber" <kst24@...> wrote:
>
>> One view of what science does is observe regularities in nature and
>> create ways of describing those patterns by constructing categories
>> and concepts for (a) organizing sense (and professionally obtained)
>> data and so (b) making predictions allowing us to act in the world
>in
>> 'meaningful' ways.
>
>
>In some cases it seems science does just the opposite - constructs
>inconsistent categories and concepts so that everybody gets confused
>and only selected gurus can show the way in the jungle. There are 7-8
>traditional second laws of thermodynamics, an indefinite number of
>less traditional and also an indefinite number of entropies. Teachers
>choose their favorite versions, rarely mention other versions and,
>when acting as referees, reject any paper trying to establish some
>subordination between the numerous concepts with the same name. On
>the other side students learn by rote.
>
>Pentcho Valev
>
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--


Dr. Keith S. Taber
http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/staff/taber.html
University Lecturer in Education
University of Cambridge Faculty of Education
Homerton College site
Hills Road
Cambridge CB2 2PH


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