Contributions from the Philosophy of Science to the Education of Science Teachers

Author： Mellado Vicente Ruiz Constantino Bermejo María Jiménez Roque

ISSN： 0926-7220

Source： Science and Education, Vol.15, Iss.5, 2006-02, pp. : 419-445

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Abstract

One of the most important topics on the international agenda in educational research is to gain an understanding of the processes of educational change in teachers and of the factors that favour or hinder it. Such understanding is, for instance, an essential element in planning and putting into practice initial and ongoing teacher education programs. This article reviews the research on science teachers’ educational change. To organize the information, an analogy is made with the process of scientific change, analyzing and evaluating the contributions of the different models taken from the philosophy of science – positivism, Popper’s principle of falsifiability, Lakatos’ scientific research programs, Laudan’s research traditions, Toulmin’s evolutionism, and Kuhn’s relativism. We conclude the article with the implications for science teacher education.