The Missing Link

Teaching Philosophy of Science

Abstract

The relations between science and philosophy are so close that philosophy of science is a central concern of both, philosophers and scientists. Moreover, science education research considers philosophical aspects to improve science education. Over the last decades decades, science education has depicted philosophical perspectives on science that target understanding concepts and the nature of science as well as socio socio-scientific issues. Surprisingly, d idactics of philosophy is not very much concerned with the connection between philosophy and science education. Teaching philosophy of science in secondary schools is not very popular even though science constitutes a dominant and pervasive aspect of stude nts’ lives. Hence, this paper focuses on philosophy of science as a missing link, connecting students’ direct experience and science’s growing influence on their lives with the general statements, methods, and concepts of science generated to a large exten t within secondary school subjects. To counter potential misunderstandings, I examine some misguided ways of thinking of philosophy of science in schools. The aim is to institutionalize philosophy of science in upper secondary schools and to foster the int erconnection of subjects within post post-compulsory education.