Imagination, Logic, and Open-mindedness

Rutherford and Ahlgren (1990) discuss the thinking traits that should be fostered by science education:

"Scientists, mathematicians, and engineers prize the creative use of imagination. The science classroom ought to be a place where creativity and invention--as qualities distinct from academic excellence--are recognized and encouraged. Indeed, teachers can express their own creativity by inventing activities in which students' creativity and imagination will pay off.

Science, mathematics, and engineering prosper because of the institutionalized skepticism of their practitioners. Their central tenet is that one's evidence, logic, and claims will be questioned, and one's experiments will be subjected to replication. In science classrooms, it should be the normal practice for teachers to raise such questions as: How do we know? What is the evidence? What is the argument that interprets the evidence? Are there alternative explanations or other ways of solving the problem that could be better? The aim should be to get students into the habit of posing such questions and framing answers.

Students should experience science as a process for extending understanding, not as unalterable truth. This means that teachers must take care not to convey the impression that they themselves or the textbooks are absolute authorities whose conclusions are always correct. By dealing with the credibility of scientific claims, the overturn of accepted scientific beliefs, and what to make out of disagreements among scientists, science teachers can help students to balance the necessity for accepting a great deal of science on faith against the importance of keeping an open mind." (p. 191)

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