Editing Scientific method (section)

=== Education ===
{{See also|Philosophy of education|Scientific literacy}}

In [[science education]], the idea of a general and universal scientific method has been notably influential, and numerous studies (in the US) have shown that this framing of method often forms part of both students’ and teachers’ conception of science.<ref name="Aikenhead 1987 pp. 459–487">{{cite journal | last=Aikenhead | first=Glen S. | title=High-school graduates' beliefs about science-technology-society. III. Characteristics and limitations of scientific knowledge | journal=Science Education | volume=71 | issue=4 | date=1987 | issn=0036-8326 | doi=10.1002/sce.3730710402 | pages=459–487| bibcode=1987SciEd..71..459A }}</ref><ref name="Osborne Simon Collins 2003 pp. 1049–1079">{{cite journal | last1=Osborne | first1=Jonathan | last2=Simon | first2=Shirley | last3=Collins | first3=Sue | title=Attitudes towards science: A review of the literature and its implications | journal=International Journal of Science Education | volume=25 | issue=9 | date=2003 | issn=0950-0693 | doi=10.1080/0950069032000032199 | pages=1049–1079| bibcode=2003IJSEd..25.1049O }}</ref> This convention of traditional education has been argued against by scientists, as there is a consensus that educations' sequential elements and unified view of scientific method do not reflect how scientists actually work.<ref name="Bauer 1992 p.">{{cite book | last=Bauer | first=Henry H. | title=Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method | publisher=University of Illinois Press | date=1992 | isbn=978-0-252-06436-4 | page=}}</ref><ref name="McComas 1996 pp. 10–16">{{cite journal | last=McComas | first=William F. | title=Ten Myths of Science: Reexamining What We Think We Know About the Nature of Science | journal=School Science and Mathematics | volume=96 | issue=1 | date=1996 | issn=0036-6803 | doi=10.1111/j.1949-8594.1996.tb10205.x | pages=10–16}}</ref><ref name="Wivagg 2002 pp. 645–646">{{cite journal | last=Wivagg | first=Dan | title=The Dogma of "The" Scientific Method | journal=The American Biology Teacher | volume=64 | issue=9 | date=2002-11-01 | issn=0002-7685 | doi=10.2307/4451400 | pages=645–646| jstor=4451400 }}</ref> Major organizations of scientists such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) consider the sciences to be a part of the liberal arts traditions of learning and proper understating of science includes understanding of philosophy and history, not just science in isolation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gauch |first1=Hugh G. |title=Scientific Method in Brief |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=New York |isbn=9781107666726 |pages=7–10}}</ref>

How the sciences make knowledge has been taught in the context of "the" scientific method (singular) since the early 20th century. Various systems of education, including but not limited to the US, have taught the method of science as a process or procedure, structured as a definitive series of steps:{{refn | Traditionally 5, after Dewey's 1910 idea of a "complete act of thought". He held that thought-process best represented science (for education).<ref name="Rudolph2005">{{cite journal | last=Rudolph | first=John L. | title=Epistemology for the Masses: The Origins of "The Scientific Method" in American Schools | journal=History of Education Quarterly | publisher=[History of Education Society, Wiley] | volume=45 | issue=3 | year=2005 | issn=0018-2680 | jstor=20461985 | pages=341–376, quote on 366 | doi=10.1111/j.1748-5959.2005.tb00039.x | quote=In chapter six, Dewey analyzed what he called a "complete act of thought." Any such act, he wrote, consisted of the following five "logically distinct" steps: "(i) a felt difficulty; (ii) its location and definition; (iii) suggestion of possible solution; (iv) development by reasoning of the bearings of the suggestion; [and] (v) further observation and experiment leading to its acceptance or rejection."}}</ref> These steps would end up being simplified and adjusted, often shortened to 4,<ref name="SpieceColosi2000"/> or extended to include various practices.<ref name="SchusterPowers2005"/>}} observation, hypothesis, prediction, experiment.

This version of the method of science has been a long-established standard in primary and secondary education, as well as the biomedical sciences.{{refn | Specifically, the scientific method has featured in introductory science courses for biology,<ref name="SpieceColosi2000">{{cite journal | last1=Spiece | first1=Kelly R. | last2=Colosi | first2=Joseph | title=Redefining the "Scientific Method" | journal=The American Biology Teacher | volume=62 | issue=1 | date=1 January 2000 | issn=0002-7685 | jstor=4450823 | doi=10.2307/4450823 | pages=32–40}}</ref> medicine,<ref name="SchusterPowers2005">{{cite book | last1=Schuster | first1=D.P. | last2=Powers | first2=W.J. | title=Translational and Experimental Clinical Research | publisher=Lippincott Williams & Wilkins | year=2005 | isbn=978-0-7817-5565-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C7pZftbI0ZMC&pg=PA3 | access-date=20 May 2024 | page=4}} Schuster & Powers hold that sources for research questions are: attempts to explain the cause of novel observations, verifying the predictions of existing theory, literature sources, and technology.</ref> and psychology.<ref name="StangorWalinga2014">{{cite book | last1=Stangor | first1=Charles | last2=Walinga | first2=Jennifer | author3=BC Open Textbook Project | author4=BCcampus | title=Introduction to psychology | publisher=BCcampus, BC Open Textbook Project | publication-place=[Victoria] | year=2014 | isbn=978-1-77420-005-6 | oclc=1014457300 | url=https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontopsychology/chapter/2-1-psychologists-use-the-scientific-method-to-guide-their-research/}}</ref> Also, in education in general.}} It has long been held to be an inaccurate idealisation of how some scientific inquiries are structured.<ref name="Rudolph2005"/>

The taught presentation of science had to defend demerits such as:<ref name="Emden2021">{{cite journal | last=Emden | first=Markus | title=Reintroducing "the" Scientific Method to Introduce Scientific Inquiry in Schools?: A Cautioning Plea Not to Throw Out the Baby with the Bathwater | journal=Science & Education | volume=30 | issue=5 | date=2021 | issn=0926-7220 | doi=10.1007/s11191-021-00235-w | pages=1037–1039| doi-access=free }}</ref>

* it pays no regard to the social context of science,
* it suggests a singular methodology of deriving knowledge,
* it overemphasises experimentation,
* it oversimplifies science, giving the impression that following a scientific process automatically leads to knowledge,
* it gives the illusion of determination; that questions necessarily lead to some kind of answers and answers are preceded by (specific) questions,
* and, it holds that scientific theories arise from observed phenomena only.<ref name="BrownKumar2013">{{cite journal | last1=Brown | first1=Ronald A. | last2=Kumar | first2=Alok | title=The Scientific Method: Reality or Myth? | journal=Journal of College Science Teaching | publisher=National Science Teachers Association | volume=42 | issue=4 | year=2013 | issn=0047-231X | jstor=43631913 | pages=10–11}}</ref>

The scientific method no longer features in the standards for US education of 2013 ([[Next Generation Science Standards|NGSS]]) that replaced those of 1996 ([[National Science Education Standards|NRC]]). They, too, influenced international science education,<ref name="Emden2021"/> and the standards measured for have shifted since from the singular hypothesis-testing method to a broader conception of scientific methods.<ref name="IoannidouErduran2021">{{cite journal | last1=Ioannidou | first1=Olga | last2=Erduran | first2=Sibel | title=Beyond Hypothesis Testing: Investigating the Diversity of Scientific Methods in Science Teachers' Understanding | journal=Science & Education | volume=30 | issue=2 | date=2021 | issn=0926-7220 | pmid=34720429 | pmc=8550242 | doi=10.1007/s11191-020-00185-9 | pages=345–364}}</ref> These scientific methods, which are rooted in scientific practices and not epistemology, are described as the 3 ''dimensions'' of scientific and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts (interdisciplinary ideas), and disciplinary core ideas.<ref name="Emden2021"/>

The scientific method, as a result of simplified and universal explanations, is often held to have reached a kind of mythological status; as a tool for communication or, at best, an idealisation.<ref name="Thurs2015"/><ref name="McComas 1996 pp. 10–16"/> Education's approach was heavily influenced by John Dewey's, ''[[How We Think]] (1910)''.<ref name="cowles" /> Van der Ploeg (2016) indicated that Dewey's views on education had long been used to further an idea of citizen education removed from "sound education", claiming that references to Dewey in such arguments were undue interpretations (of Dewey).<ref name="van der Ploeg 2016 pp. 145–159">{{cite journal | last=van der Ploeg | first=Piet | title=Dewey versus 'Dewey' on democracy and education | journal=Education, Citizenship and Social Justice | publisher=SAGE Publications | volume=11 | issue=2 | date=8 June 2016 | issn=1746-1979 | doi=10.1177/1746197916648283 | pages=145–159| url=https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/44567891/1746197916648283.pdf }}</ref>