Teaching What Is "Real" About Science: Critical Realism as a Framework for Science Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Critical and Cultural Approaches Investigating Science Learning

Abstract

The purpose of this conceptual article is to lay out the argument that society can both trust in scientific evidence and question scientific bias in the same space, holding these two seemingly opposite positions in productive tension, and that we should teach students to do the same. Critical realism is presented as an ontology and epistemology to guide science education developing a critical scientific literacy by teaching students what is real and what is arbitrary about science. Recommendations for science education are outlined, grounded in critical realism and connected to current education research and principles of the nature of science.

Author

• Sarah Ferguson, Rowan University