We need to change the way we teach science

Recently I have been involved in re-designing a university laboratory course. The process got me thinking about the philosophy behind the way we teach science. And I have come to the conclusion that we've got it wrong. Well, largely wrong.

Let's start from the beginning. The way I was exposed to science as a child was through museum exhibits, books, magazines and science live shows. I suspect your experience of the practical side of science was similar. It was great seeing how vinegar and baking soda frothed and bubbled like a volcano. It was cool seeing the catalytic effect of cigarette ash when trying to burn a sugar cube. I loved seeing a flower smashed into hundreds of pieces after being dipped in liquid nitrogen. These cool demonstrations of science gradually became more complex as I progressed through high school and into college and university. But even at university, the principle was still much the same. The underlying principle throughout all my science education was to understand certain concepts and memorise certain facts. The way this usually worked (even at the university level) was that we were taught something in lectures and then the labs provided practical experience of the concepts being taught. My science education was probably somewhat unique, since I was home schooled, but I think that science education in principle is largely the same throughout the Western world: science is taught as concepts to be understood and facts to be memorised.

Granted, science concepts and facts need to be taught and understood and practical demonstrations/experiences are great for re-enforcing concepts taught in class. But science practical classes are rarely true experiments. They may be described as experiments but there is no element of uncertainty; there is no new knowledge gained. There is just re-enforcement of ideas to which students have already been exposed. Science practical classes are largely recipes that are followed to give an expected outcome. And if you don't get the expected outcome, then you must have done something wrong.

I propose a complete re-imagining of science education. From the very beginning of primary school to the very end of university, we need to focus more on the process of science. Yes, we need to teach students as much of the body of scientific knowledge as they can take in, but more importantly we need to teach students about the process of generating a hypothesis, designing and performing an experiment to test the hypothesis and comparing the experimental result to the hypothesis. One way we could do this is through designing practical classes where failing to get the desired result does not mean 'failing' the lab class. We need to give students the mental framework they need to be able to ask intelligent questions and generate meaningful experiments, provide the resources for them to conduct these experiment, and then give them the freedom to conduct their experiments, even if we know that they won't all work.

That's how we create good scientists.