The rise of Western rationalism: Paul Feyerabend’s story

I summarise certain aspects of Paul Feyerabend’s account of the development of Western rationalism, show the ways in which that account is supposed to run up against an alternative, that of Karl Popper, and then try to give a preliminary comparison of the two. My interest is primarily in whether what Feyerabend called his ‘story’ constitutes a possible history of our epistemic concepts and their trajectory. I express some grave reservations about that story, and about Feyerabend’s framework, finding Popper’s views less problematic here. However, I also suggest that one important aspect of Feyerabend’s material, his treatment of religious belief, can be given an interpretation which makes it tenable, and perhaps preferable to a Popperian approach.

Controvérsias sobre a natureza da luz: uma aplicação didática

Researches in the field of Science Teaching have shown, in recent decades, that students from high school level have difficulties in understanding basic concepts of science, in general, and physics, in particular. The specific literature indicates, as a priority for a scientific education of better quality, a more structured understanding about science. This work proposes the introduction of elements of History and Philosophy of Science in high school as an aid to learning the concepts of optics, in general, and of aspects concerning the nature of science, specifically. Making use of historical episodes regarding the controversy on the nature of light, especially during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as clippings of the history of optics in relation to the development of models that explain the process of vision, we formulated a teaching unit and implemented it on two night high school classes of a public school in the city of Parnamirim (RN). The unit involved, primarily, the reading of three historical texts containing written questions followed by a collective debate ("moot"). The results indicated some difficulties in overcoming the misconceptions related to the process of vision and the nature of light. Nevertheless, we believe that the teaching unit has succeeded in relation to the learning of most students, both in relation to a better understanding of science as well as concepts of optics

História da ciência como estratégia didática no ensino médio: um breve olhar de conteúdos da óptica

From a critique of aspects of the current teaching of physics, we propose in this paper an investigation into the conceptions of Nature of Science (NOS) submitted by students from the high school level, as well as the inclusion of discussions about some elements of NOS, through the History and Philosophy of Science, understanding them as facilitating strategy for more effective learning of Physics and, more specifically, the contents of optics. Based on the historical period corresponding to Greek antiquity to the mid-nineteenth century, built and applied a teaching unit to a high school class at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN) Ipanguaçu campus. Our teaching unit involved the reading and interpretation of texts with historical content, observation and assembling five experimental activities, among other activities. Data analysis occurred through questionnaires investigative applied before and after the completion of the teaching unit, as well as questionnaires for content present in the texts. Although not significant, the results indicated that the application of the teaching unit allowed the (re) construction of some conceptions about NOS targets students present in our work, and contribute to a better learning content and greater optical science approach and its nature

Ensinando sobre a natureza da ciência: uma abordagem explícita e contextualizada a partir da história do vácuo

In last decades, the importance of including the contents of the Nature of Science (NOS) in Science Education has been emphasized. Several studies have focused on investigating the conceptions of NOS, supported by students and teachers, as well as design, implement and evaluate proposals that aim to provide a reflection on this theme in the educational context. Considering the complexity of such content, studies indicate the need for explicit and contextualized approaches and the History of Science (HS) is one of the possible paths to this inclusion. We started from the premise that, through a historical study, that aims to discuss the meaning and the basis of our "beliefs", we can know the process of building on what we "believe" and better understand its meaning. This thesis is part of this perspective, proposing to explore the History of the Vacuum, a themed high didactic potential still little used, in order to collaborate with the teaching content of NOS. We present actions on different fronts that originated three products in the context of this research. On the first front, we insert the research and production of instructional materials (three historical texts) to subsidize people interested in the implementation of HPS for educational context through this material. The relevance of this front is justified by the existence of gaps with regard to the production of such material for the context of teacher training. However, we consider that the preparation of instructional material of good quality and accessible does not guarantee that these resources will be used, if they will not be accompanied by discussions in teacher training, on how to use them, contexts and obstacles to be faced. The second part presented refers to the organization and implementation of a workshop for undergraduate students in physics and physics teachers, considering the instrumentalization of these individuals to the preparation and use of teaching strategies to approach aspects of NOS through episodes of History of the Vacuum, as well as the preparation of the text orientation for people interested in implementing the instructional material for secondary education. This guidance text contemplates the difficulties anticipated by the literature of the area and the main challenges faced by the participants about the didactic transposition of HPS for the educational context they were noted during the workshop. The relevance of this second front, in particular, is justified by the existence of gaps with regard to the inclusion of the theme of NOS and the HPS teacher training

História e filosofia da biologia na formação inicial de professores: reflexões sobre o conceito de evolução biológica

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

História e filosofia da ciência na pesquisa em ensino de ciências no Brasil: manutenção de um mito?

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A articulação das culturas humanísticas e científica por meio do estudo histórico-sociocultural dos trabalhos de James Prescott Joule: contribuições para a formação de professores universitários em uma perspectiva transformadora

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Construção de estatutos de ciência para a biologia numa perspectiva histórico-filosófica: uma abordagem estruturante para seu ensino

Pós-graduação em Educação para a Ciência - FC

A História e Filosofia da Ciência: Contribuições para o Ensino de Ciências e para a formação de professores

This article integrates results from reflections on the importance of history and philosophy of science for science education and teacher training. Centrally, was based on results from reflections on the importance of this knowledge for teacher training and action planning of science teaching by the teacher, through a thematic approach. To address this latter topic, we attempted to do so by considering the action planning of science teaching in elementary schools. This option is due to the fact that in the discipline, be clearly stated the broad reach of its area, to integrate knowledge about nature, human beings and technology, among others, in a historical and philosophical perspective.

A aplicação de tópicos de História da Química no processo de ensino e aprendizagem: dificuldades dos alunos

This research project aims to determine the main way that the inclusion of topics of history and philosophy of science education activities aimed at high school, influence the process of teaching and learning of chemistry. The subject of research will be a teacher, undergraduate student in chemistry and public school students that the teaching units developed will be applied. The literature presents a large of research indicating the need to include these topics in education and present the results of large withdrawals of original sources of the development of scientific knowledge. Despite of the large number of these works are not very common reports of application of the results of these studies on activities of the classroom, which reinforces the importance of this study

O desenvolvimento de habilidades argumentativas no ensino médio: perspectiva a partir de um minicurso investigativo com base na história da ciência

The performance of investigative activities with lessons in teaching Science and Chemistry has promoted meaningful learning of scientific knowledge. This study aimed to develop the links between higher education for research and skills argumentative, aimed at building the scientific concept on combustion of the candle in a closed container, for students from two classes of 3rd year of high school, two city schools Bauru, São Paulo. We decided to do a short course investigative, to respond argumentative skills which are developed during the minicourse using investigative activities, knowledge from the history and philosophy of science. The results were gathered from analysis of video recordings of episodes of the short course in both the groups, to produce a higher rate of use of argumentative skill, which were classified into categories according to the prior knowledge of the subject, 'factual knowledge' , 'understanding of concepts' and 'reasoning and analysis.' From the information obtained, it was found that both the teachers and the students were consistent in their actions, and that the activity of reasoning is key to learning. Thus, one can realize that knowledge is not acquired all at the same time, each individual depends on the mediation of the teacher in order to reach different design more appropriate teaching and investigative linked with the argument can be the key tool to acquire this knowledge

História da ciência no ensino de Física: um estudo sobre o ensino de atração gravitacional desenvolvido com futuros professores

We report here some outcomes of a research related to a didactical experience aiming to integrate the History of Science to the Physics Teaching, taking as background the historical development of the gravitational attraction. The research, of qualitative approach, is a case study and it was carried out in a sample of eleven students belonging to an undergraduate physics program (called licenciatura in Brazil) designed to from High School physics teachers in a São Paulo State Public University. We tried initially to reveal prospective teachers’ conceptions in order to provide a prepare that was used to guide the activities from the reality’s diagnosis. The aim was to promote discussions on the existence and persistence of alternative conceptions, on the historical evolution of the subject gravitational attraction, through readings and debates of texts contemplating recent subjects on the Science Education research, in order to generate dissatisfaction with traditional teaching models. The future High School physics teachers were asked to construct their own teaching proposal, through the development, in real situations, in a High School, of a minicourse based on: debates and synthesis developed in University classroom, the History of the Science and the student’s alternative conceptions. In this paper we will analyze future teachers’ alternative conceptions, the development of the course proposed, and details of the mini-courses taught by the prospective teachers in real situations, among High School students, its coherence and the posture changes observed in them.

História e Filosofia da Biologia como ferramenta no ensino de evolução na formação inicial de professores de Biologia

By establishing a relationship among several sections of Biology, the theory of the evolution enables a more systemized and less fragmented education of this science. However, students seem to have difficulties of understanding the concept of biological evolution, by virtue of misunderstanding conceptual and historical data present in textbooks, among other causes. One of these mentioned distortions is the shock between Lamarck and Darwin’s ideas. We aimed, in this work, to investigate the understanding of Biology’s students in pre-service teachers education concerning the Lamarck and Darwin’s theories at different moments of the Evolution discipline. For this, some steps had been followed: 1) Verification of the previous conceptions; 2) Elaboration of a pedagogical material, containing diverse historical texts of primary and secondary sources; 3) Debates in two didactic modules, using the pedagogical material elaborated; 4) Analysis of the conceptions constructed by the students, from the didactic intervention. The results obtained show the preconceptions of the students interviewed, concerning the Lamarck and Darwin’s theories, resemble the explanations presented in textbooks and the insertion of historical texts in the Evolution lessons can be an interesting strategy to construction of knowledge of this theme

La historia de Carlos Chagas como recurso para la formación de profesores de biología: algunas posibilidades

This paper analyzes the history of the doctor and scientist Carlos Chagas in the research that led to the identification of the agent and vector responsible for Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis), in the early twentieth century, pointing out some possibilities of using this piece of history in shaping Biology teachers, as regards the discussion of science as a process of human construction and therefore historical.