by Bluegoat » December 22nd, 2008, 8:06 pm
I hope I've put this in the right place.
I was ready a rather predictable discussion on a forum the other day on creationism vs. evolution, (which is not what I want to discuss!) I noticed that there were many people that had a rather poor understanding of the scientific method, talking about theories being proven, what the method was supposed to do, and so on. This included all the actual science students, including grad students, in the discussion.
Now, I remember actually learning about the scientific method once in school, in grade 8. My teacher told us that a theory could never be proven, and I as a fairly bright 14 year old thought that was BS. I only understood as I matured, and really understood it more technically when I learned as a philosophy student about induction and deduction. But I always figured science students in university would spend a fair bit of time on this.
My husband, who studied chemistry, tells me he didn't touch the topic in university, it was assumed they learned it in junior high.
I'd be interested to know what others, especially teachers and scientists, think of this.