Not out of the blue - the genesis of modern school science textbook descriptions of historical experiments

• Autores: Peter Heering, Sebastian Kowalski
• Localización: The Circulation of Science and Technology: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science. Barcelona, 18-20 November 2010 / coord. por Antoni M. Roca Rosell, 2012, ISBN 978-84-9965-108-8, págs. 72-77
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Recently, several papers in the field of science education have been published that analyse school and university textbooks with respect to accounts of certain historical experiments, such as Millikan’s oil drop experiment or the photoelectric effect. In doing so, the authors generally criticize the accounts in today’s textbooks as erroneous with respect to the historical experiment, as well as misleading with respect to aspects of the nature of science. Even though these criticisms are well founded, it remains an open question why these accounts can be found in textbooks. It appears to be evident that not every detail of the historical experiment can be included in the description; consequently, decisions are to be made on which aspects are relevant and which are superfluous. These decisions are not simply made, but are the outcome of a historical process –consequently it appeared to be interesting to examine the genesis of these descriptions.