Developing a taxonomy of science concepts based on a scale of empirical distance |
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| Authors: | Brian L Jones |
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| Institution: | (1) Centre for Education, University of Tasmania, 7001 Hobart, Tasmania |
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| Abstract: | The term ‘concept’ is used in different ways within educational literature and has at least two different, although related,
referents in relation to science knowledge, namely, public knowledge and private understandings. A taxonomic structure for
‘science concepts’ (public knowledge) has been developed to provide a rationale for the choice of phenomena to be used in
the investigation of students’ ‘concepts’ and also to act as a frame of reference for generating insights about the data to
be collected. Furthermore, it may be a useful heuristic to predict other science concepts likely to be highly problematic
in school teaching situations and thus worthy of detailed research. The taxonomy, called a ‘Scale of Empirical Distance’ (SED),
enables science concepts to be mapped according to their degree of closeness to concrete realities. The scale shows a recognition
of the empirical basis of science concepts and the role of human senses in the perception of the material world even though
“absolute objectivity of observation is not a possible ideal of science” as Harre (1972) has noted. The scale uses two binary
variables, namely, ‘visual’ and ‘tactile’, to generate four categories of science concepts ranging on a continuum from concrete
to abstract. Some concepts related to ‘matter’ will be classified and discussed.
Specializations: science teacher education, primary science curriculum and methods, students’ personal meanings of phenomena. |
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