History, Philosophy and Science Teaching

Abstract

Although there are many scholars who have contributed significantly to bringing the history and philosophy of science (HPS) and science education closer together, there is no single person who has done more than Michael Matthews. Michael has not only been the editor-in-chief of Science & Education for 25 years, since its inception in 1990, but also an active ambassador of HPS-informed science educa- tion. He has travelled all over the globe to numerous conferences where he has promoted the aims of the IHPST group and Science & Education. He has also been keen in bringing people to the IHPST as authors and reviewers. Last but not least, he has written and edited several books on HPS and science teaching. Michael’s most recent achievement is the enormous, and of enormous impor- tance, International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching, published by Springer in 2014. This is a three-volume book with contri- butions by 130 researchers from 30 countries – an amazing achievement. It is the first-ever handbook surveying the past and present of research on history, philoso- phy and science teaching, and in its 75 chapters, several pedagogical, theoretical, biographical and national research traditions are discussed. Therefore, one might think that with such an enormous work, there would be several years before anyone attempted to develop another book of this kind.