Conference Meeting: How Can the History and Philosophy of Science Contribute to Contemporary Science Teaching?

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This project will support a conference on teaching history and philosophy of science in K-12 science classes. The history and philosophy of science (HPS) are important topics that play a significant role in scholarship about science: its historical and current development; its methods and innovations in such methods; and its philosophical and theoretical bases. HPS is also included, in some form or other, in many state's science standards and in national standards and reform efforts. Despite this prevalence and relevance, there is surprisingly little empirical evidence on how HPS should be taught to achieve desired learning outcomes. This is particularly true of the relationship of HPS to science achievement, as measurable by most standardized tests, but it is also true of the relationship of HPS to other outcomes, such as inquiry skills, practices of science, or scientific reasoning ability. The present conference will envision a research agenda about the role of HPS in K-12 education. It will include scholars from a variety of fields: HPS; STEM disciplines; science education research; psychology and cognitive sciences; and education research methods. The 2.5-day conference will combine three activities: a one-day symposium with public lectures and panel discussions by US and international scholars on HPS, science education, cognitive science, and education research; a one-day invitational workshop to set an agenda for future research and ideas for proposals for future funded projects; and a meeting of the project steering committee to synthesize points from Days 1-2 and to coordinate writing of a monograph, journal special issue, or similar compilation of reports to the field.