The natures of scientific thinking: Creativity as the handmaiden to logic in the development of public and personal knowledge

Abstract

One aspect of the nature of science is that it is characterised by particular modes of thinking. Science is commonly seen as a rational process that uses logical arguments to develop explanatory schemes and theories. Philosophers of science have proposed models for how science proceeds, and science education aspires to find intellectually honest accounts of 'the scientific method' that are suitable for presenting as target knowledge in the school curriculum. There are a number of recognised challenges here, such as the abstract nature of philosophical models; inconsistencies between the different models available; the intellectual readiness of young people to engage in logical argument. However the focus on what has been called 'the context of justification', important as it is, needs to be balanced by consideration of 'the context of discovery': without which there would not be any scientific knowledge claims requiring logical argument from evidence to support them. Science education is often perceived by students as being about learning well-established facts, rather than being about exploring the strengths and weaknesses of the creative products of imaginative minds. Theories, models, teaching analogies and figurative metaphors presented by teachers may all be understood as intended to have the same - realist - ontological status. This not only ignores the creative origin of the models and theories taught in science, and so the value of students' own imaginative suggestions, but leads to many students acquiring an undifferentiated menagerie of ideas that obscures the logical grounds for accepting well-established models and theories. This chapter considers the nature of creative thought in the scientific process, and in learning science; and argues that science teaching needs to be more explicit about the nature and status of different ideas presented in the classroom to help students fully appreciate both the creative and rational aspects of science.