Prologue: The Origins of the First Adapted Primary Literature

Abstract

The above quotation from Joseph Schwab invites us, reading him 50 years later, to notice scientific inquiry in a different place. We usually are encouraged to find scientific inquiry in the manipulative activities scientists engage to understand the natural world (e.g., National Science Education Standards 2011, p. 23). Schwab tells us we can find inquiry in scientific papers. Indeed, he says those papers are “the most authentic, untouched specimens of inquiry.” It is our belief that we can indeed find inquiry in scientific papers, and in reading and the writing of them that underlies and motivates this volume. To think that such papers are the most authentic examples of scientific inquiry truly is an intriguing thought that we ask you to explore with us throughout this book. This book is about what and how scientists read and write and what those practices imply for school science education.