Epistemological anarchism of Paul Karl Feyerabend and medical education

The thoughts of the philosopher Paul Karl Feyerabend brought important contributions to the debate on Science in the 20th century. Most recently his views about non-existence of a single method for doing science have been employed to rethink science education and propose the use of multiple methods for effective teaching-learning process. This article employs the theoretical framework of the author expressed in the book Against Method, 1977, about the epistemological anarchism and the methodological pluralism and uses it in the contemporary discussion of medical education.

What does the field of International Relations look like in South America?

Abstract This article provides a comprehensive picture of IR in South America by applying content analysis to 7,857 articles published in 35 journals from six South American countries from 2006 to 2014 in order to discover what the predominant theories, methods and research areas in this field are, how scholars tend to combine them in their research designs, and what the profiles of regional journals are, regarding their epistemological, methodological and subject preferences. The findings reveal a predominantly Positivist and largely Qualitative discipline, resembling North American and European IR.

Towards a Unified Theory of Health-Disease: I. Health as a complex model-object

Theory building is one of the most crucial challenges faced by basic, clinical and population research, which form the scientific foundations of health practices in contemporary societies. The objective of the study is to propose a Unified Theory of Health-Disease as a conceptual tool for modeling health-disease-care in the light of complexity approaches. With this aim, the epistemological basis of theoretical work in the health field and concepts related to complexity theory as concerned to health problems are discussed. Secondly, the concepts of model-object, multi-planes of occurrence, modes of health and disease-illness-sickness complex are introduced and integrated into a unified theoretical framework. Finally, in the light of recent epistemological developments, the concept of Health-Disease-Care Integrals is updated as a complex reference object fit for modeling health-related processes and phenomena.

Modern epidemiology and its discontents

The goal of this article is to present a snapshot of an ongoing debate within epidemiology, pitching opposing sides in the struggle to define the path it should follow in the years to come. The debate among epidemiologists in the mid-90s pitted those who defended the idea that epidemiology should necessarily deal with a wide context against those who believed that science and public health are better served by focusing on the individual level. Ian Hacking’s concept of styles of reasoning was used as a theoretical tool. The literature was reviewed using a core set of articles as an entry point, seeking articles that cited them, and then back-tracking the citations of the resulting set in the Scopus database. The main arguments are presented according to levels (ontological, epistemological, axiological and pragmatic), in order to show an even deeper disagreement, in the very conception of science and its relation to social issues and public policy.

Natural immunoglobulins (contribution to a debate on biomedical education)

Immunology has contributed to biomedical education in many important ways since the creation of scientific medicine in the last quarter of the 19th century. Today, immunology is a major area of biomedical research. Nevertheless, there are many basic problems unresolved in immunological activities and phenomena. Solving these problems is probably necessary to devise predictable and safe ways to produce new vaccines, treat allergy and autoimmune diseases and perform safe transplants. This challenge involves not only technical developments but also changes in attitude, of which the most fundamental is to abandon the traditional stimulus-response perspective in favor of more "systemic" views. Describing immunological activities as the operation of a complex multiconnected network, raises biological and epistemological issues not usually dealt with in biomedical education. Here we point to one example of systemic approaches. A new form of immunoblot (Panama blot), by which the reaction of natural immunoglobulins with complex protein mixtures may be analyzed by a special software and multivariate statistics, has been recently used to characterize human autoimmune diseases. Our preliminary data show that Panama blots can also be used to characterize global (systemic) immunogical changes in chronic human parasitic diseases, such as malaria and schistosomiasis mansoni, that correlate with the clinical status.

Nursing Supervision: Studying the “Case” of the phenomenon of interorganizational articulation Nursing School and Hospital

The history of this research found a suitable ethos not only by the route of the researcher, but also by the current public policies of modernization and reform that are capable of regulating and transforming the educational and health systems, as well as their professional groups. The reflection meantime developed had raised a clear perception of the organizational change processes by which they interfered with the interorganizational coordination between School of Nursing and Hospital, where internship supervision would be the main protagonist, supported by the meanings that intervening actors have assigned to them. In this context, the search for explicit epistemological and methodological choices leads to look more attentively at the problem, ascertaining it, taking into account the organizational dimensions. In this regard, the choice of a case study was related to the fact that the method allowed to answer the purpose of knowing and understanding the interorganizational coordination phenomenon between School of Nursing and Hospital, namely through the supervision of internships.

Para além das fronteiras da química: relações entre filosofia, psicologia e ensino de química

The concepts of molecule and of molecular structure are so central to understand chemical phenomena that seems to be no doubt about the uniqueness of its meanings. Nevertheless, the idea that the world exhibits a multiform structure and that to different spheres of the world correspond different ways of knowing (Berger & Luckmann, 1967) has received support from different areas of scientific inquiry. Bachelard (1940, 1982) showed that a single philosophical doctrine is not enough to describe all the different ways of thinking when we try to explain a single concept. Wooley's question about the possibility of deducing the concept of molecular structure from quantum theory (Wooley, 1978) strengthened the feasibility of thinking the concept of molecule as a profile that encompasses different meanings. Moreover, research on students' learning of scientific concepts have brought to light that students use several ideas to explain scientific and everyday phenomena which are different from those learned in formal schooling. These ideas are not extinguished or replaced by scientific concepts, despite the efforts to do so in science classes. The common sense and scientific ways of understanding and talking about reality seems to be complementary in the same sense of the Bohr's complementarity (Halliday & Martin, 1993). So, we have to include in our profile of the concept of molecule not only scientific but also common sense zones. Drawing from Bachelard's notion of epistemological profile, from the history of science and from the research on children's ideas in science, we have developed the idea of a conceptual profile and used it to analyse basic scientific concepts, such as the concepts of matter and physical states of matter (Mortimer, 1995) and to investigate new ways to teach them. In the present paper, we will discuss the zones that might constitute a conceptual profile of molecule. The need of complementary views to account for the molecular structure in different contexts bring important issues for understanding and teaching chemistry, which will be discussed further in the article.

A Eterna Busca do Indivisível: do Átomo Filosófico aos Quarks e Léptons

The fascinating search of the inner boundaries of the Universe, has been entangled, since the birth of greek philosophy 25 centuries ago, with the main epistemological changes in the History of Science. This paper does not intend to present a systematic description of the discovery of the elementary particles. By stressing the main achievements of the knowledge of matter's structure and their dependence on symmetry arguments, it is argued that even considering profound differences in each historical period, there is a paradgima of atom shared by Chemistry and Particle Physics. This text could help High School Teachers of Chemistry and Physics, as well as motivate them, in the challenge of explaining to their pupils how the idea of atom evolved.

O ensino por problemas e trabalho experimental dos estudantes: reflexões teórico-metodológicas

This work focuses its attention in teaching through problems, as a methodological strategy in the system of chemistry learning situations. The philosophical and epistemological basis of our perspective are the works that were developed by M. Majmutov and M.M. Llantada, in the field of sciences didactics and in the social-historical context of the school, where the fundamental categories that structure teaching through problems are discussed: the problem, the problematic tasks and problematic, as main orientations in the process of construction of the knowledge by the students.

Constituição de professores universitários de disciplinas sobre ensino de Química

This paper focuses on the teaching development practice in the field of chemistry covering such disciplines as chemistry teaching practice, chemistry teaching instrumentation and chemistry teaching methodology and/or didactics, thereby describing and analysing the logics of the development practice and the role of teachers as well as the epistemological identity configurations (knowledges which are proper to said identity) within this discipline field.

A química newtoniana

The work of Newton exerted a profound influence on the development of science. In chemistry this newtonian influence was present in Query 31 of Newton's Optics. However, the incursion of Newton's thought into chemistry brought upon the chemists an epistemological question, that of the nature of their discipline. Would chemistry be a discipline in its own right, or simply a branch of physics? In this work we present the newtonian program for chemistry, as well as the reaction of traditional chemists to it. We conclude by proposing that Lavoisier carried through a synthesis between newtonian methodology and the singularity of traditional chemistry.

Ciência como cultura: paradigmas e implicações epistemológicas na educação científica escolar

"Science as culture" is based on the assumption that science is a valuable component of human culture. We therefore have to build the bridge, in cultural terms, from the scientific community to the common citizen. Teaching science as culture requires the co-construction of knowledge and citizenship. Ways of articulating science/technology with society are invoked, pondering on the ethical ambivalence of such connections. The goals of this reflection are to think about: a) epistemological obstacles that, in favouring the logic of monoculture, oppose the implantation of the science as culture; b) epistemological strategies that point towards a diversity of cultural practices and "constellations" of knowledge leading to the reconfiguration of the being through knowledge; c) imperatives that force us to (re)think the epistemological bases suited to the paradigmatic changes and which translate the dynamics and complexity of the evolution of the frameworks that currently sustain science and school scientific education.

A problematização das atividades experimentais na educação superior em química: uma pesquisa com produções textuais docentes

Through the analysis of articles with proposals for experimental activities and with current pedagogical, epistemological and environmental discussion on experimentation by Chemistry professors, this paper investigates ways of highlighting relevant methodological characteristics that can be incorporated in experiments. Based on analysis of the suggestions for experiments it appears that of particular importance are: a concern for students' physical welfare and for the effects of residues; the need to confront an impoverished infrastructure that hinders experimentation; and the valorisation of clarifying student knowledge. It argues in favour of the need to set out the problems of experimentation in educators' professional development.

O trabalho experimental no ensino de Química

This article deals with conceptions of the experimental work in the Chemistry teaching, developed among teachers and students. The research was carried out using qualitative methodology, based on Gaston Bachelard's thoughts. The results showed dispersion of conceptions among both students and teachers. This dispersion, interpreted as a profile of conceptions, was discussed based on the notions of Bachelard's epistemological profile and Mortimer's conceptual profile. This work points out the need to rethinking and finding new directions for experimental activities in the training courses for Chemistry teachers, in order to meet Chemistry educators' social goals.

A problematização das atividades experimentais na educação superior em Química: uma pesquisa com produções textuais docentes - parte II

Through the analysis of articles with proposals for experimental activities and with current pedagogical, epistemological and environmental discussion on experimentation by Chemistry professors, this paper investigates ways of highlighting relevant methodological characteristics that can be incorporated in experiments. 102 articles from national periodicals were analysed, all of which suggested experiments for use in Chemistry higher education. Based on analysis of the suggestions for experiments it appears that of particular importance are: visions, such as those that explain a belief that experimentation incentivizes motivation and conceptual learning; awareness of observation influenced by empiricism; and "errors" of students, which enrich their knowledge.