Knowing and Teaching Science: A Theoretical Framework for Using History and Philosophy of Science in Teaching Experimental Sciences

To help improve the teaching and learning of Science, it is assumed that the knowledge of Science history and philosophy can help and all needed is a theoretical framework for doing so, to which this paper is addressed. It is further assumed that using the knowledge of history and philosophy of Science can not only help with the cognitive aspects of teaching and learning science, but it improves the affective and behavioral aspects of these undertakings as well. Not only the learners’ knowledge of what Science and its methods are improves, but once they know what true science is, their skills improve too, and they start behaving like a true scientist. The attitude and the world view of the learners also improve once they become aware of the history and philosophy of Science. Given the inseparability of history and philosophy of Science from Science and its teaching, it is necessary to cover these areas within high school and university curricula in order to prevent any misunderstanding of Science and formation of inexact and non-cohesive views in this regard.