Teaching Whole Science (Sacred Bovines‪)‬

Climategate. Erroneous links between the measles vaccine and autism. Revised mammogram recommendations. Suspect communication with coma patients. Ideally, science education prepares students to interpret such cases in the news. These cases, in particular, underscore the role of understanding nature of science (NOS), in contrast to just content. And they reflect a need for broad skills in analyzing the diverse features of reliability in scientific claims. One needs to teach Whole Science, not a pre-processed School Science, lacking in essential conceptual nutrients (Sacred Bovines, last issue). But how? One could, of course, assemble a textbook on nature of science. Describe the various features and illustrate them with examples (McComas, 2008). Then test students on their ability to identify and explain the various principles (Lederman et al., 2002). It is a familiar pattern. Conventional and comfortable. But join me in questioning this sacred bovine: that one teaches most effectively--and respects students most--by simply feeding students the answers. Or voluminous class notes and review sheets. The most valuable NOS lessons may be a series of well-posed problems.