hosws
International Workshop on the History of Science: Implications for Science Education
22nd to 26th February 1999
First Announcement
Organized by Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE),
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, India.
Formal science teaching and learning at school has remained relatively insulated from currents in the history or philosophy of science. Lay history of science is largely made up of unreflective hand-me-downs that have served more to obscure and mystify the nature and practice of science than to clarify it or to convey the excitement of its critical episodes. Yet, the large body of work in the history of science that has accumulated over the last few decades offers us a broader and more mature picture of science and is a rich resource for communicating a dynamic and living image of science.
The implications of the history and philosophy of science are various and profound. Much attention has been focused on the philosophical challenge of rethinking our early notions of scientific objectivity. In the literature on science learning, we find a resurgent concern with relating the learning have responded to these developments by an intensive focus on conceptual change and on related issues like student epistemologies. There is also a need to take stock of those holdings of knowledge we call science, that time has rationed across cultures.
The efforts to apply the fruits of the historical study of science to science education have been meager. Over the last hundred years, some sporadic attempts have been made to base science curricula on the history of science. The recent progress in history of science promises to strengthen these efforts and contribute to a richer and more meaningful science curricula.
The workshop will provide a forum for the exploration of history of science from the perspective of science education. Participants for the workshop will include science and mathematics educators, historians and philosophers of science, persons engaged in cognitive studies of science and mathematics learning and science communicators. A significant number of participants are expected to be research students and younger researchers working in these areas.
The workshop will be focusing on following themes:
Critical Episodes in the history of science and mathematics
This theme of the workshop is expected to be addressed largely through tutorial lectures by invited experts. The topics to be covered are the great revolutions of modern science before and during the twentieth century, the evolution of mathematics and the multicultural origins of science and science and mathematics.
Historical approaches to science and mathematics curriculum
Under this theme, we plan to survey history of science based approaches to the curriculum and explore concrete applications that are possible and may prove valuable. Similarly, the relevance of the history of mathematics to mathematics curriculum will also be explored. A related question we hope to address is what historical inputs are appropriate at different levels: school, pre-college and college, teacher education, and in different contexts: science popularization and adult education.
Conceptual change in science and science learning
This theme is expected to include work done at the interface of cognitive science and history of science, attempts to capture the parallels between the ‘ontogeny and phylogeny’ of scientific knowledge and its implications for science teaching and learning.
Philosophy of science and science education:
It is necessary to have clarity about the nature of science when we advocate its central place in general education. What image of science should one convey through the science curriculum? How is science related to values? These issues would be brought under the last theme of the workshop.
Invited speakers:
George G. Joseph, University of Manchester
Michael Matthews, University of New South Wales
Nancy Nersessain, Georgia Institute of Technology *
B.V. Subbarayappa, Indian Institute of World Culture
Stella Vosniadu, University of Athens *
* to be confirmed
Guidelines for participation:
If you are interested in reading a paper at the workshop on the themes mentioned above, then you need to send us an abstract of your paper of atleast 500 words, before 31st august 1998. You will be given a reading time of 30 minutes followed by ten minutes discussion. Please also enclose a copy of your curriculum Vitae.
If you are interested in participating in the workshop (but not in reading a paper), you need to send us by 31st August 1998 a copy of your Curriculum Vitae, a brief resume of your current work and a brief statement about how you expect the workshop to help you. We’ll confirm your participation by 30 September 1998. Registration fees will have to be paid before 2nd November 1998. Dead line for submitting full papers is 31st January 1999.
Registration fee:
Student participants from India – Rs. 350
Other Participants from India – Rs. 1,000
Participants from abroad – US$100
Registration fees will cover accommodation and boarding for the duration of the workshop, stationery and related expenses.
Travel support: The centre does not have sufficient funds to support international travel. All participants from outside India are requested to try and procure travel support independently from India. Wherever possible, participants from India are requested to try and procure travel support independently.
About HBCSE:
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) is a national centre of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, a leading institute of research in science and mathematics. The main foci of work at HBCSE are – development of school curriculum in science and mathematics, building resources for in-service teacher education, research on aspects of learning science and mathematics and science popularization. One of the key areas of work in science popularization at the centre is the history of science. HBCSE is also India’s nodal centre for training participants for the international Olympiads in mathematics and physics. HBCSE is located at Trombay, a suburb of Mumbai, about 30km away from the main campus of the Tata Institute. For more details about HBCSE visit our HOME PAGE: URL: http://www.tifr.res.in/~hbcse
Local Organizing Committee:
Nagarjuna G., HBCSE, Mumbai
Porus Lakdawala, HBCSE, Mumbai
K. Subramaniam, HBCSE, Mumbai
Prajat Basu, IIT, Mumbai
Assistance: Meena Kharatmal, HBCSE, Mumbai
Advisory Committee:
Arvind Kumar, HBCSE, Mumbai
Michael Matthews, University of New South Wales
Virendra Singh, TIFR, Mumbai
B.V. Subbarayappa, Indian Institute of World Culture, Bangalore
Address:
WHOS Secretariat; Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education.
V.N.Purav Marg; Mankurd, Mumbai 400088, INDIA.
Phones: 5567711, 5554712,5555242
Fax: 91-022-5566803 email: whos@hbcse.tifr.res.in
URL: http://www.tifr.res.in/~hbcse
