Scientific knowledge is provisional and developmental
In the starting essays nearly all students appeared to understand that scientific
knowledge is not a fixed body of unchanging facts, but rather is dynamic and
evolves over time, for example:
One thing that makes science different is the way it keeps on changing… new theories
and ideas replace old ones. (Brad)
Scientists build on the past but always challenge… sometimes the biggest advances
occur through questioning prevailing orthodoxies. (Mia)
It is interesting to note in considering these starting points that questions asked
in the first NOS teaching session on the course showed that the students had had
little or no emphasis on NOS in their own schooling or undergraduate courses. For
most, the first time they had been asked to articulate their own views on the nature
of their subject had been at their PGCE interview.
What then of impact of the course? There were some positive signs of the way
course developments had impacted on some students, for example:
The PUS assignment really got me thinking about the purposes of science… I could
see the relevance of the NOS sessions. (Andy)
The NOS session at the start made me read more about science. It’s amazing that so
few of us had thought about this before. (Mel)