From the Summit of Truth to Its Slippery Slopes: Science Education's Journey Through Positivist-Postmodern Territory

This research seeks to justify the development of informed, balanced views regarding the positivist-postmodernist debate in science education. This is accomplished by clarifying origins and offering details on the current status of these two distinct positions. I attempt to illuminate what is an intense debate—but one often lacking focus and clear definitions. This is done by discussing (a) the origins of important stances, (b) problems with simplistic reductions to two extremes, (c) dubious extrapolations, and (d) perspectives for science education that strive for an even-handed approach to positions on the nature of science and the nature of learning in a multicultural society. Using both historical and philosophical interpretations of the issues, I conclude that current conceptions are oversimplified by some who promote extremes of both relativistic and strict hypothetico-deductive or inductive models related to what should be learned and what counts as science.

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