Author:

Keywords:

nature of science, museum education

Abstract:

Science can be considered as a process of exploration and investigation, continuously developing new tools, theories and concepts reshaping our understanding of the world. In contrast, secondary school students and pre-service teachers often stick to a disembodied view of science, picturing it as a static, unchanging body of knowledge. To tackle this and similar misconceptions about the nature of science, university museums can play a pivotal role as the academic collections bear witness of the dynamics of science and scientific history. We will report on an ongoing study aimed at developing thinking skills of pre-service teachers and secondary school students with regard to the NoS in the context of a science museum. We distinguish three complementary approaches: (1) thinking by doing, e.g. challenging students to think about science while doing experiments; (2) thinking by stepping into the shoes of (historic) scientists, e.g. by using historic scientific instruments; and (3) thinking about science by participating in philosophical dialogues. We will discuss our preliminary findings with regard to the implementation of these approaches in the educational program of the Ghent University Museum. We will focus on the role of the facilitator guiding the dialogue and on the experience of participating students and pre-service teachers.