Values, practices, and philosophy of science

Download
2016
Keler, Raşit Hasan
The main aim of philosophy of science is to clarify the nature of science. I believe that this can only be achieved by specifying the values and practices of particular scientific theories and research traditions. Therefore this text is about practices of sciences and in particular, about what scientists and scientific communities prefer about and choose the theories, research programs, models, tools, data, hypothesis, theoretical frameworks, and all kinds of things they employ. What needs to be done is not to assume the values and practices of science, but rather to find them out. I give numerous examples from the sciences to exhibit different practices, values, and their connections. After my discussion of practices and values, I move on to discussion of various philosophy of science issues. I believe that the root of many philosophy of science issues is a lack of consideration of practices and values of science. I show that a lot of these issues dissolve once we look at the issues informed by the practices and values. Discussed issues include the aim of science issue, objectivity and unbiasedness, rationality, underdetermination, confirmation, demarcation, and social constructivism.

Suggestions

Student and school characteristics related to elementary students’ nature of science views
Hacıeminoğlu, Esme; Ertepınar, Hamide; Yılmaz Tüzün, Özgül; Department of Elementary Education (2010)
The purposes of this study were to explain the development and validation of a new instrument for assessing elementary students’ views of the Nature of Science (NOS) and to investigate student and school level factors that help to explain the difference in NOS views. The sample included 3,062 elementary students elementary schools located in Çankaya. Different from these students, 782 elementary students were the sample for the first focus of this study. The Nature of Science Instrument, Learning Approach Q...
Investigating pre-service science teachers’ perceived technological pedagogical content knowledge regarding genetics
Savaş, Meltem; Yılmaz Tüzün, Özgül; Department of Elementary Science and Mathematics Education (2011)
The purpose of this study was to investigate the preservice science teachers’ perceived technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) on genetics. More specifically, the purpose was to examine the relationships among the components of TPACK and genetics knowledge of the preservice science teachers. Moreover, findings the effect of the demographic information on perceived TPACK was also aimed. This study was conducted with preservice science teachers who were enrolled in elementary science education de...
New directions in the direction of time
Bağcı, Gökhan Barış; Grünberg, Teo; Department of Philosophy (2006)
This thesis analyzes the direction of time problem in the framework of philosophy of science. The radiation arrow, Newtonian arrow, thermodynamic arrow and quantum mechanical arrow have been studied in detail. The importance of the structure of space-time concerning direction of time is emphasized.
Investigation of the relationship between pre-service science teachers' understandings of nature of science and their personal characteristics
Çetinkaya, Gamze; Çakıroğlu, Jale; Department of Elementary Science and Mathematics Education (2012)
The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible relationships between pre-service science teachers' understanding of nature of science (NOS) and their personal characteristics; understanding of nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI), epistemological world views, self-efficacy beliefs regarding science teaching, attitudes towards science teaching, metacognitive awareness level and faith/worldview schemas. The sample of the present study were 60 PSTs that are 3rd year students at elementary science edu...
Connecting science communication to science education : a phenomenological inquiry into multimodal science information sources among 4th and 5th graders
Gelmez Burakgazi, Sevinç; Yıldırım, Ali; Feinstein, Noah; Department of Educational Sciences (2012)
Science communication, as a multidisciplinary field, serves to transfer scientific information to individuals to promote interest and awareness in science. This process resembles science education. Rooted in science education and science communication studies, this study examines the 4th and 5th grade students` usage of prominent science information sources (SIS), the features of these sources, and their effective and ineffective uses and processes in communicating science to students. Guided by situated le...
Citation Formats
R. H. Keler, “Values, practices, and philosophy of science,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2016.