Scientists at play in a field of the Lord

Long, David E.

doi:10.1007/s11422-009-9249-7

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…Long's experience at the Creation Museum during the 'Rally for Reason' ''clearly showed individuals with political and philosophical agendas, and a sanguine emotional investment'' who were fearful of other viewpoints and engaged in heated discourses regarding science and origins (Long 2010). Perhaps this scenario could have been avoided if, as school children, these adults had been participants in science classrooms with teachers who conducted personal research and included full coverage of the theory of evolution, including both support and fallacy, with an overall goal of stimulating student discussions and encouraging critical thinking about science and origins and empathy towards other viewpoints.…”

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Teaching students to think critically about science and origins

Seals

2010

Cult Stud of Sci Educ

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In David Long's article, Scientists at Play in a Field of the Lord, he studies the discourse between a network of regional scientists, atheists, activists and evolutionists at the opening of The Creation Museum on Memorial Day, 2007. This review essay examines the teaching of evolution through the teacher's 'lens of empathy' and also considers a 'pupil centeredness' approach. As a practicing science educator, I have found it paramount to take into consideration my students' backgrounds and their families' beliefs in order to understand their preconceived notions about the origins of life. By teaching evolution as 'a theory with both facts and fallacies' only then does it become an opportunity for critical thinking that fosters growth and risk taking in a safe environment. Most times students hear evolution preached as a one-sided lecture by teachers who believe it's ''my way or the highway'' and leave little or no room for dialogue. I believe that a teacher's job is to stay updated with current research on the theory of evolution and then present all the information to students in a way that creates personal opportunities for them to adjust their existing schema without demeaning them, their ideas, or their faith or belief system. This not only shows value, compassion and tolerance for them as thinking humans, but also allows them opportunities to develop critical thinking, which helps to shape whom they become as adults.

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Teaching students to think critically about science and origins

Seals

2010

Cult Stud of Sci Educ

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“…Where as with Aristotelian logic phenomena are viewed as static and immutable, dialectics helps us understand nature as interconnected processes, themselves in the process of transforming. Using the Cartesian method of reductionism in teaching where we use simplified systems and models to investigate nature may be successful in understanding a concept, but such tactics should not be elevated to an ontology of nature, since a part always remains a component of a complex, interconnected whole, evolving in mutual relation to one another in a relationship that in itself is evolving (Levins and Lewontin 1985). I therefore propose that teaching science is not about ''truths'' and beliefs as John Staver argues (2010).…”

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Religion, nature, science education and the epistemology of dialectics

Alexakos

2010

Cult Stud of Sci Educ

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In his article Scientists at Play in a Field of the Lord, David Long (2010) rightly challenges our presumptions of what science is and brings forth some of the disjunctures between science and deeply held American religious beliefs. Reading his narrative of the conflicts that he experienced on the opening day of the Creation Museum, I cannot help but reconsider what the epistemology of science is and science learning ought to be. Rather than science being taught as a prescribed, deterministic system of beliefs and procedures as it is often done, I suggest instead that it would be more appropriate to teach science as a way of thinking and making sense of dialectical processes in nature. Not as set of ultimate ''truths'', but as understandings of processes themselves in the process of simultaneously becoming and being transformed.In his article Scientists at Play in a Field of the Lord, David Long (2010) raises important concerns for science educators. Through his narrative of the opening day of the Creation Museum in Kentucky, he rightly questions the nature of the discourse concerning creationism within the science community, and who has a claim over what science is. It is thus that he intrepidly challenges our presumptions of what makes science science, and by extension, how it is taught.I agree with Michael Reiss' argument (2010) that in the short term as science educators we should aim to teach students with creationist worldviews at least an understanding of the scientific view of evolution and science. What is problematic I think is the epistemology that commonly frames such an understanding. Therefore, in this forum response I suggest that the significance of these discussions lies beyond conversations between science and religion as some write (Roth 2010), but in the discourse of what the epistemology of science ought to be. The strength of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution

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Evolution and Religion in American Education

Long

2011

Cultural Studies of Science Education

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The series is unique in focusing on the publication of scholarly works that employ social and cultural perspectives as foundations for research and other scholarly activities in the three fields implied in its title: science education, education, and social studies of science.The aim of the series is to establish bridges to related fields, such as those concerned with the social studies of science, public understanding of science, science/technology and human values, or science and literacy. Cultural Studies of Science Education, the book series explicitly aims at establishing such bridges and at building new communities at the interface of currently distinct discourses. In this way, the current almost exclusive focus on science education on school learning would be expanded becoming instead a focus on science education as a cultural, cross-age, cross-class, and cross-disciplinary phenomenon.The book series is conceived as a parallel to the journal Cultural Studies of Science Education, opening up avenues for publishing works that do not fit into the limited amount of space and topics that can be covered within the same text.For further volumes:

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Scientists at play in a field of the Lord

Cited by 6 publications

References 12 publications

Teaching students to think critically about science and origins

Teaching students to think critically about science and origins

Religion, nature, science education and the epistemology of dialectics

Evolution and Religion in American Education

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