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How to Use Historical Approach to Teach Nature of Science in Chemistry Education?

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Abstract

Successful implementation of historical approach to teach nature of science (NOS) requires suitable curriculum material. Several research and development projects have produced lesson plans for science teachers. 25 lesson plans from four different projects involved in creating curriculum material utilizing historical approach in chemistry education were analyzed to describe NOS content included as well as the historical experiments and narratives used. Based on the results of descriptive content analysis of existing curriculum materials, several suggestions on the successful design of lesson plans utilizing historical approach are made. To increase the coherence and clarity of learning objectives and instruction, each lesson plan should focus on the limited amount of specific NOS issues instead of several overtly general NOS aspects. To support explicit classroom discussion on the selected NOS issues, historical narratives used in the lesson plans should illustrate these issues. The lesson plans should also include instructions on how to facilitate classroom discussion, such as questions for students to discuss and reflect. Recommendations are also made concerning the appropriate use of historical experiments and narrative elements such as viewpoint characters and conflicts.

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Notes

  1. Similar structure was also suggested by Rudge and Howe (2009), who used research on sickle cell anemia as a context for eight lessons, each lesson discussing different case in the history of said research.

  2. Ducheyne (2012) describes a case study where the Cavendish experiment is discussed with students without conducting the experiment. Niaz (2010) uses descriptions of historical experiments when teaching with controversies.

  3. http://www1.umn.edu/ships/.

  4. http://hipstwiki.wetpaint.com/.

  5. http://www.storybehindthescience.org/.

  6. http://www.luma.fi/materiaalit (in Finnish).

  7. In Finnish school system chemistry is taught as a separate subject. Because of this, there is need for curriculum material that is intended especially for chemistry education.

  8. Affective learning objectives (e.g. increasing students' interest in science) were outside of the scope of this study and were not analyzed.

  9. See http://www1.umn.edu/ships/initiate.htm for MCSC and http://www.storybehindthescience.org/support.html for SBS. HIPST offered a link to MCSC guidelines. Review of FTC project is outside the scope of this study.

  10. Comprehensive narrative is similar to the idea of history as unifying context in case study, suggested by Stinner et al. (2003). Also approaches used in MCSC and HIPST are described as case studies (Allchin 2011b; Höttecke and Riess 2009) and aim at comprehensive use of narratives.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki, PL 55, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Simo Tolvanen, Jan Jansson, Veli-Matti Vesterinen & Maija Aksela

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  1. Simo Tolvanen
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  2. Jan Jansson
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Correspondence to Simo Tolvanen.

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Tolvanen, S., Jansson, J., Vesterinen, VM. et al. How to Use Historical Approach to Teach Nature of Science in Chemistry Education?. Sci & Educ 23, 1605–1636 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-013-9646-x

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