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Science Teaching: What Does It Mean?

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Abstract

This study considers the relationship between science, science teaching and the philosophy of science perceiving these three cultural phenomena as a semantic triad. This approach presents science teaching as being a form of a scientific reflection. The relationship of science teaching to the philosophy of science is advocated to be essential, revealing the conceptual meaning of science in the science curriculum and thus removing the semantic degeneracy taking place when the philosophy of science is ignored in science education. The study points at the bricolage as well as magic nature of the science curriculum preserving as long as science teaching preserves semantic degeneracy. Different types of meaning of Schwab’s commonplaces were recognized. The study challenges the common view of the relationship between science, science teaching and pedagogy and suggests effective representation of individual knowledge of science educators.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Science Teaching Department, The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel

    Michael Tseitlin & Igal Galili

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  1. Michael Tseitlin
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  2. Igal Galili
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Correspondence to Igal Galili.

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Tseitlin, M., Galili, I. Science Teaching: What Does It Mean?. Sci Educ 15, 393–417 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-005-8261-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-005-8261-x

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