Why Implementing History and Philosophy in School Science Education is a Challenge: An Analysis of Obstacles

Abstract

Teaching and learning with history and philosophy of science (HPS) has been, and continues to be, supported by science educators. While science education standards documents in many countries also stress the importance of teaching and learning with HPS, the approach still suffers from ineffective implementation in school science teaching. In order to better understand this problem, an analysis of the obstacles of implementing HPS into classrooms was undertaken. The obstacles taken into account were structured in four groups: 1. culture of teaching physics, 2. teachers' skills, epistemological and didactical attitudes and beliefs, 3. institutional framework of science teaching, and 4. textbooks as fundamental didactical support. Implications for more effective implementation of HPS are presented, taking the social nature of educational systems into account.

From black and white to shades of grey

“…Discussions regarding the goals and aims of school science are far from novel, but have been a topic at least since the beginning of the twentieth century (Rudolph 2005). It is also evident that the diverging goals will be connected to very different forms of teaching, where the focus on concepts has been known to follow strict patterns of teacher-centered transmission of knowledge (Bartholomew et al 2004;Höttecke and Silva 2011).…”

“…Most teachers are deeply rooted in a school-science culture that has its starting point within science and uses the structured teaching formats connected to this way of viewing the goals of science education (Roberts 2011). This means that including new elements, both issues and teaching formats, that does not fit with the current teaching culture can be very challenging for teachers (Aikenhead 2006;Bartholomew et al 2004;Höttecke and Silva 2011). In a recent study, Leden et al (2015) reported on perspectives on NOS teaching put forward by teachers who had no previous NOS teaching experience.…”

“…& A lack of teaching resources that can be embraced as adequate by the teachers (Abd-El- Akerson and Hanuscin 2007;Hanuscin et al 2011;Lakin andWellington 1994, Höttecke andSilva 2011) & NOS considered as an add-on even by teachers who regard it as important (Abd-El- Clough and Olson 2012;Höttecke and Silva 2011) & Teachers are unaccustomed to, and insecure regarding, the NOS teaching format and strategies (Bell et al 2000;Herman et al 2013;Lakin and Wellington 1994, Henke and Höttecke 2015, Leden et al 2015 & Concerns for students' abilities to deal with abstract or controversial issues (Abd-El- Aikenhead 2006;Brickhouse and Bodner 1992;Hodson 1993;Lederman 1995;Leden et al 2015) & Concerns for the Bgood students^who are accustomed to memorize facts for the test (Aikenhead 2006;Leden et al 2015) Research studies have examined what teachers perceive as opportunities with NOS teaching to a surprisingly small extent. One interesting exception is Herman et al (2015) who connected the Btype of utility value^expressed by the teachers to their level of NOS implementation.…”

“…Considered as vague reasons were notions that NOS Bbrings it down to the human level,^and that science becomes more enjoyable and connected to everyday life (Herman et al 2015). However, if teachers are to be able to overcome the obstacles of breaking with traditional school science, through teaching about NOS, it is important that they see the utility for NOS teaching in the endeavor to reach more overarching goals of science teaching (Herman et al 2015;Höttecke and Silva 2011). Such overarching goals have to do with students' abilities to take part in, or make meaning of, socio-scientific debates (Hodson and Wong 2014) and to create competent outsiders (Feinstein 2011)-that is, goals that are Bimportant for life well beyond formal schooling ( Herman et al 2015, p.180).…”

“…To change existing practices through, for example, including new elements in the teaching is often challenging. Previous research on challenges (e.g., Henke and Höttecke 2015;Höttecke and Silva 2011) has provided explanations as to why there often is a gap between research intentions and classroom practice. Teachers' perspectives constitute an important part in the attempt to understand this gap further.…”