John Dewey's theory of inquiry. Quantum physics, ecology and the myth of the scientific method

This scoping review examines the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools into scientific education practices in school settings. Following the PRISMA statement guidelines, a literature search was conducted in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, identifying 2892 articles published between 2020 and 2024. After applying the eligibility criteria, 75 primary studies with empirical data demonstrating the outcomes of school‐based scientific practices using AI tools were selected. The studies were coded based on the type of AI, the type of scientific practice, AI competencies, and other contextual and pedagogical aspects. The results indicate that the most frequently used tools by students are computer vision, natural language processing and data mining. Most studies focus on secondary education levels, combining strategies such as project‐based learning, scientific inquiry and the STEM approach. Although the evidence suggests that these tools enhance scientific skills like data interpretation and computational thinking, limitations were identified, including the use of low‐reliability or paid software and a lack of representation of ethical competencies. Finally, the review highlights the need to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration and the design of curricular programmes that integrate AI through an ethical framework. The findings are discussed to provide guidance for pedagogy, public policies and future research. Context and implications Rationale for this study: This study was conducted to examine current evidence on how AI tools are being integrated into K‐12 scientific practices. Why the new findings matter: The findings presented are relevant for analysing current trends, identifying research gaps and exploring opportunities to update interdisciplinary pedagogical frameworks and digital literacy curriculum policies. Implications for educational practitioners, policy makers and researchers: For education practitioners, this study provides a planning model with practical examples for integrating AI into K‐12 scientific practices. For policy makers, it highlights the urgency of updating curricular frameworks and public education policies to ensure equitable access to trustworthy technologies, as well as initial and ongoing teacher training in AI, while fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly between science and mathematics. For researchers, there is a clear need to expand empirical studies that examine scientific practices in virtual and hybrid modalities, in underexplored levels such as elementary education, and that take into account ethical competencies in the use of AI.

Increasingly, natural resource management is seeing calls for new paradigms. These calls pose challenges that have implications not only for planning and management, but also for the practice of science. As a consequence, the profession needs to deepen its understanding of the nature of science by exploring recent advances in the philosophy of science. We believe that one of the problems inhibiting a better understanding of science is a strongly ingrained belief that science is about methodology. This perspective is reflected in Hetherington, Daniel, and Brown's (1994) recent criticism of Bengston's (1994) methodological pluralism. To initiate discussions that may help bring about a reconsideration of the nature of science, we offer a two‐part definition of science. The first portrays science as a systematic endeavor that shares a common process without mandating a common methodology. The second part is an attempt to highlight and promote an exploration of the normative structure that underlies science.

An emphasis on science practices in university science education provides a logical route to student development of scientific literacy and critical thinking. Unlike scientific literacy and critical thinking which have been the subjects of much debate and controversy, the science practices are consensus-based and well-defined. As the disaggregated components of critical thinking, science practices are well-positioned to support and systematically assess student development of critical thinking. In this paper, we report on our examination of general chemistry laboratory curricula for opportunities to engage students in science practices using the Three-Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol, 3D-LAP. Our findings suggest that the laboratory curricula provide opportunities for students to engage in some practices, while others are consistently underrepresented. Additionally, there is a disproportionate emphasis on mathematical thinking which not only has equity implications, especially for marginalized students, but could also have the unintended consequence of students developing a distorted view of the intellectual work of chemistry. The findings of our study indicate a need for greater balance with respect to the practices in the general chemistry laboratory curricula, and have the potential to inform the design, development, or adaptation of lab curricula to better support scientific literacy and critical thinking. We couple accountable disciplinary knowledge and constructive alignment to discuss these and other findings and implications of our work for teaching, learning, and research.

The Pegasus workflow management system: Translational computer science in practice

The new companion volume to Surgery: Scientific Principles and Practice, 2nd edition, represents a collaborative effort by 183 contributors under the guidance of Editor-in-Chief Lazar J. Greenfield, MD. This distilled version contains 835 pages in 109 chapters and could easily stand alone as a reference for the intended audience of medical students, house officers, and medical practitioners. Indeed, if all the information contained within its pages were absorbed by a student, he or she would have a tremendous advantage at the beginning of a surgical internship. The preface by Dr. Greenfield explains, “…students need a portable source of information to understand the rationale for the diagnostic and therapeutic efforts they observe.” This text clearly accomplishes that goal. The first major subdivision, Scientific Principles, prepares the reader for today’s examinations, which are weighted heavily towards the basic sciences. Material is presented logically with excellent diagrams that solidify and explain the understanding of subjects without redundancy. In the second section, Surgical Practice, general surgical problems are clearly organized by system beginning with the digestive organs. After reviewing the abdomen, the text returns to the thorax, surgical endocrinology, vascular system, and finally, the surgical subspecialties. Most sections begin with a thorough discussion of anatomy and physiology, echoing the basic-science tone of the work. Current surgical management is comprehensively but concisely presented, partitioned by disease etiology, presentation, diagnosis, and treatment. References are limited to approximately 10 per chapter and include both journal articles and book sections. The book has one shortcoming—although the index is 30 pages long, it unfortunately often fails to guide the reader in the correct direction. Despite this, Essentials of Surgery: Scientific Principles and Practice is very well-written and constitutes an excellent educational tool, whether it is used for review, or alone as a primary text.

BackgroundScience teachers' understanding of the roles of computing practices in science frame how they enact scientific computational practices in their teaching and how their students perceive the relationship between computational practices and scientific endeavours.ObjectivesThis critical, integrative review synthesizes teacher learning literature about the role of computational literacy and computing practices in K‐12 science teaching.MethodsWe examined 54 peer‐reviewed articles and analysed the ways the researchers and teacher participants describe the affordances of integrating computational thinking (CT) and other computational practices in science. We characterize how CT and computational practices are framed in relation to scientific learning goals. We identify six primary affordances for integrating computational practices with science that are conveyed to teachers and by teachers, as represented in these studies of teacher learning.Results and ConclusionsThese six perspectives include (1) learning computer science principles, (2) developing CT dispositions, (3) engagement and inclusion in science, (4) taking ownership of science, (5) supporting learning science content, and (6) participating in computational practice as a form of scientific epistemic practice. Our analysis indicates that computational thinking and computational practices are often integrated in science in order to teach something about computing (e.g., Perspective 1), rather than to support learners' scientific work. Only the 29 articles coded for the sixth perspective—that is, in service of epistemic aims in science—demonstrate commitment to students' uses of computational ideas and practices as epistemic tools to participate in the sensemaking work of science.TakeawaysComparison of Perspectives 5 and 6 illustrates the nuance between computational practices in science that reify something students have already “figured out,” rather than those that serve epistemic goals. Perspective 6 encapsulates the deep synergy among (1) the reflexive nature of computing with scientific ideas and (2) computing as a central practice in science and engineering. We contend that a more focused message of computational practices in service of scientific sensemaking goals is necessary if we expect teachers to enact CT and related computational practices in their classrooms.

The use of scientific methods is no longer restricted to science. Knowledge of social science methods has proliferated beyond scientists to public sector organizations of all types. Nevertheless, the methodology of administrative ethics research is dominated by descriptive hypotheses, small- and medium-n analysis, single-country/single-shot research designs, and document analysis as data-collection instruments. This study shows the blind spots of predictive propositions, comparative research designs, interviews, and observations as data-collection instruments or triangulation. Against the background of the evolution of the discipline, as well as the specific topography of the field, it is argued that administrative ethics research has room to unleash its full methodological power for solving, describing, exploring, explaining, and predicting the major problems of ethics research. The theme addressed has a direct bearing for scientists and decision-makers in the public sector. Research and policymaking could both profit from a new methodological pluralism.

The issue of covering the right to access information in the context of modern communicative practices in domestic science is one of the main theoretical and applied problems, because without its clarification at the level of research consciousness it is hardly possible to talk about a comprehensive study. Therefore, the aim of the article is to analyze the right to access information in the context of modern communicative practices in domestic science, as well as to clarify the role of research in the development of modern theory of social communications and the right to access information. The methodological basis of the study is a set of philosophical and ideological approaches, general scientific and special legal methods. The article analyzes the problems of the right to access information as a scientific foundation for the formation of ideas about access to information in the context of modern communicative practices in domestic science. Scientific views and discussions of leading scientists and researchers of this problem are considered. Attempts to understand the problem of access to information in the context of communicative practices in the field of law and in the context of historical, philosophical, socio-psychological, political science and technical research are highlighted. Scientific sources devoted to the problems of information and the right to access it in the light of the formation and development of communicative practices in the information society are studied. The author found some inconsistencies in the views of scholars on the understanding of information in general as a category of social communications and communicative practices, the identification of the right to access information with the right to information. At the same time, a conclusion is made about the indisputable research value of the analyzed source base for further scientific research. It was found that scientific research of different periods of human development has not lost its significance, as a basis for the development of modern theory of social communications and the right to access information in the context of modern communication practices.

Summary. It has been proven that the main task of the development of the educational system is the training of a highly qualified specialist who can solve complex tasks in the field of geodesy and land management, the development and application of cadastres, and the use of geoinformation systems. In accordance with the defined task, an educational-scientific program at the third level in the field of geodesy and land management, where scientific-pedagogical practice is of great importance, has been developed and implemented. Scientific and pedagogical practice is a mandatory component in the educational and scientific program, the importance of which is growing. The work achieved the goal of substantiating modern methods and models of conducting scientific-pedagogical practice for the specialty «Geodesy and Land Management». Solved tasks: systematization of theoretical provisions for the definition of modern methods and models of conducting scientific and pedagogical practice for the specialty «Geodesy and Land Management»; highlighting the practical aspects of applying the presented methods and models. Scientific and pedagogical practice for graduate students is a complex process that provides functional, subject, technical, technological methods and models that integrate pedagogical and research scientific activity and is aimed at the development of professional, research, methodological, analytical, worldview, pedagogical and communicative competences of the applicant . As a result of the study, methods and models for conducting scientific and pedagogical practice were determined, which are determined by functional, technological, informational characteristics, pedagogical direction and a self-oriented approach, which allows to ensure the growth of the professional skills of the acquirer. Scientific and pedagogical practice is considered as a complex process that ensures the integration of pedagogical tools and research methods and models. General scientific and special methods of conducting scientific research in the field of ensuring the territorial development of land use are proposed. Keywords: scientific and pedagogical practice, methods, models, specialty, geodesy, land management, postgraduate students.

It is a common view among philosophers of science that theoretical virtues (also known as epistemic or cognitive values), such as simplicity and consistency, play an important role in scientific practice. In this article, I set out to study the role that theoretical virtues play in scientific practice empirically. I apply the methods of data science, such as text mining and corpus analysis, to study large corpora of scientific texts in order to uncover patterns of usage. These patterns of usage, in turn, might shed some light on the role that theoretical virtues play in scientific practice. Overall, the results of this empirical study suggest that scientists invoke theoretical virtues explicitly, albeit rather infrequently, when they talk about models (less than 30%), theories (less than 20%), and hypotheses (less than 15%) in their published works. To the extent that they are mentioned in scientific publications, the results of this study suggest that accuracy, consistency, and simplicity are the theoretical virtues that scientists invoke more frequently than the other theoretical virtues tested in this study. Interestingly, however, depending on whether they talk about hypotheses, theories, or models, scientists may invoke one of those theoretical virtues more than the others.

In the early 1990s, breast cancer activists in the United States challenged the scientific establishment to include lay activists in the inner circles of science policy making. Within a few years, activists' demands extended beyond policy to inclusion in the everyday practices of science, that is, in the formulation of research questions, the design of scientific studies and the review of scientific grant proposals. While some activists refer to themselves as consumers, their participation in the practices of science has taken them beyond the narrow framework of consumption and cast them as producers, rather than simply consumers, of scientific knowledge. This paper describes a science education program organized by breast cancer activists to prepare them for involvement in the scientific arena. The specific goals of this educational program are to teach basic concepts of biology and epidemiology and critical appraisal of scientific literature and research studies, as well as to examine the institutional practices of science. By simultaneously engaging with the content and the politics of science in Project LEAD, breast cancer activists acquire tools that allow them not only to influence science policy but to evaluate the truth claims of science. In the process, they take a more active and direct role in determining the nature of knowledge produced about breast cancer.

In recent years several philosophers and other science studies experts have adopted a somewhat more Ptolemaic than Copernican view of theories, models, and scientific research, namely, the “semantic” conception of theories and their applications. On the old, “Copernican” view, theories are deductively integrated, interpreted logical calculi, in standard symbolic logic, and science is a theory-centered enterprise that aims for a comprehensive, single picture of the universe. Accordingly, consistency becomes a hard constraint, a sine qua non of useful, rational inquiry. Proponents of the semantic conception are somewhat more “Ptolemaic” in treating theories as collections of models and in placing the solution of local problems in restricted domains ahead of grand, spectator theories of the universe. They focus as much on the process of inquiry as upon the logical structure of its products. Remarkably, in scientific practice we find inconsistencies and near-inconsistencies of various kinds apparently popping up everywhere, suggesting that one cannot lay a tight grid of standard logic over scientific practice. However, deflating unitary theories into collections of models makes inconsistency harder to define and locate precisely—but also less serious. Consistency often becomes a soft, negotiable constraint—one constraint among others. In practice, inconsistency rarely leads to complete disaster, for there are various ways to tame it. I urge paraconsistency and inconsistency-tolerant logicians to pay attention to real scientific examples of scientists’ responses to inconsistency and quasi-inconsistency, e.g., conceptual incongruities such as conceptual “blowups” and pragmatic inconsistencies such as the simultaneous use of mutually inconsistent models.

Applying ICT in teaching practice is little researched. The studies focusing on the subjective factors of ICT application in educational practice of natural sciences are very rare. The investigation may include motivation for pedagogical work, the need for continuing studies, different experiences of applying ICT etc. The problem of research has been determined by such preconditions as the present situation of applying ICT teaching natural sciences during pedagogical practice and subjective factors determining the latter educational phenomenon. The goal of research is to analyse the use of ICT in natural science education concerning the subjective factors defining this educational phenomenon. The object of research is ICT application in natural science education. The techniques of literature analysis, questioning and mathematical statistics have been applied to conduct research. 300 students carrying on teaching practice in natural sciences have been surveyed. The following subjective factors marking ICT application in educational practice of natural sciences have been established: the sex, learning experience gained in secondary school, the character of entering the university, the outlooks for future studies and motivation for pedagogical job. The number of male rather than female students using ICT in educational practice in natural sciences is gradually increasing. The students having previous experience gained in the last two years of studies in upper secondary school more frequently and efficiently apply ICT in practice. Professional motivation for pedagogical job has no relations with applying computers in educational practice. Key words: educational practice, natural science.

In France, definitions of childhood and relations between adults (parents, professionals, public authorities, scientists, even sociologists …) and children, continue to be matters of debate in everyday life, scientific practices and political arenas. This article intends to show how these debates can be analysed as an object of research, using Boltanski’s sociological model of Justification. The presentation of this framework highlights its relations to the contributions of two other French sociologists whose works are not directly interested in childhood: Bourdieu and Latour. It is centred on two main aspects of this model: the study of operations of critiques and justifications based on a pragmatic sociology of critique and the idea of its double requirement: equality and order between human beings. It shows how this framework can be useful for thinking about childhood–adulthood relations as a moral and political order which is an object of debates. Then, from an historical example, the author proposes a short case study of what may be called an analysis of the moral sense of justice towards children.

The article reveals subject discussions on the development of philosophy and methodology of science. The peculiarities of philosophical and methodological disciplines, which give the opportunity to study the theory of knowledge and its structure, are determined. Emphasis is placed on the need to understand metaphysical, epistemological and ethical issues related to the practice and goals of modern science. Emphasis is placed on interpretation, which states that knowledge about the universe comes through scientific research. The process of development of science, which takes place gradually and dates back to antiquity, is singled out. Reflections on human knowledge through the figures of world-famous philosophers are presented and an explanation of the goals and methods of science is offered. The main focus is on the study of empiricists who have taken as their starting point the central task of understanding the great advantages of the natural sciences. In fact, they suggested that the search for the theory of the scientific method was carried out by Aristotle, Bacon, Descartes, et al. − can be done more thoroughly with the help of mathematical logic. Methods and results of the work of philosophy and methodology of science require constant replenishment of reliable knowledge about the world and man, but taking into account productive work on yourself. The focus is on the fact that some philosophers continue to work on issues that do not break the relationship with the natural sciences. Thus, exploring, for example, the nature of space and time or the fundamental features of life. The general philosophy of science, on the other hand, seeks to shed light on the general features of the sciences, continuing the research begun in antiquity using Aristotle's discourses on logic and method. It is noted that methodology is a rational-reflective mental activity aimed at studying ways to transform human reality-methods − rational actions that must be taken to solve a problem or achieve a goal. The application of methods is carried out in any field of scientific and cognitive activities. Methodology of science carries out research, search, development and systematization of methods used in this activity to obtain scientific knowledge and general principles that guide it. The main imperative of philosophical science is the need to teach people to think empirically, creatively, exploratoryly and independently.