The Empirical Attitude, Material Practice and Design Activities |
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| Authors: | Xornam Apedoe and Michael Ford |
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| Institution: | (1) Learning & Instruction, School of Education, University of San Francisco, 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA;(2) Department of Instruction and Learning, University of Pittsburgh, 5525 Posvar Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA;; |
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| Abstract: | This article is an argument about something that is both important and severely underemphasized in most current science curricula.
The empirical attitude, fundamental to science since Galileo, is a habit of mind that motivates an active search for feedback
on our ideas from the material world. Although more simple views of science manifest the empirical attitude through relation
of theories to data, we describe more recent philosophical scholarship that characterizes the relation of theories to data
through phenomena (regularities in nature’s behavior that can be identified and characterized through data). This view highlights the centrality
of material
practice, in which scientists design data collection events to inform phenomena. Thus manifestation of the empirical attitude in science
is characterized as a design endeavor that involves considerably sophisticated coordination among theories, phenomena, data,
and data collection events. If we want students to learn how to participate in such work, curricula should break down these
complex processes into more basic components at least at the outset. Our recommendation is to begin with design activities
that can focus on the empirical attitude initially without the complex coordination with phenomena and data. We present an
example of such an activity and share results that suggest design activities can target the empirical attitude and be built
upon in curricula to gradually include coordination with phenomena and theories. |
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