Undergraduate science research projects and students - School of ...

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Undergraduate Learning in Science Project Working Paper 5Student: It can only be done in that there are standardpractices, standard ways of doing things and they shouldbe followed to ensure that something follows a standard.Student 3.CInterviewer: Do you agree that sometimes there areconflicts of ideas in science (...) How are they resolved?Student: How they resolve them in science is by carryingout experiments that prove one theory is right, provingwithout a shadow of doubt that that theory is the correctone.Student 3.DIn the first case, the emphasis is upon critical procedures for ensuring thereliability of data collected, and hence the validity of conclusions. Suchresponses are represented by section Ab(i)a. In the second example,however, the emphasis is upon the use of experiments to distinguish betweencompeting knowledge claims - such responses are represented by sectionAb(i)b.In the following example, the focus is upon social rather than empiricalprocesses in warranting scientific knowledge claims:Interviewer: Supposing two scientists disagree aboutwhat a set of results means (...) How are those conflictsresolved?Student: It’s to do with what the general opinion is at thetime and what other people think.Student 3.KSuch responses are represented by section Ab(ii).In some cases, it appeared that students viewed absolute proof of scientificknowledge claims as inherently problematic:I think that’s because geophysics is very inaccurate, itcan be a very inaccurate science if you don’t put thebounds on it. I mean it’s a lot worse than physicsbecause you’re dealing with a lot more complexsituations, so you have to put the bounds on (...) you couldalways have the qualitative idea of how accurate ...whether what you’re saying is true.Student 3.GSuch responses are represented by section Ab (iii).Some students apparently viewed scientific knowledge as being conjecturalin nature and extending beyond the data available in practice or in principle.50
Undergraduate Learning in Science Project Working Paper 5There were examples of statements from students which referred to theevaluation of knowledge claims as involving social processes [Ac(i)],empirical processes [Ac(ii)], and both social and empirical processes[Ac(iii)]. Further responses, suggesting that there is no obvious basis forevaluating competing knowledge claims, are represented by section Ac(iv).In some cases, students appeared to recognise the logical distinction betweenproving and falsifying knowledge claims, such responses being representedby section Ac(v).In practice, students’ comments about the conjectural nature of scientificknowledge tended to make points rather obliquely, and it was very difficult tocharacterise the precise meaning of what was said. Consider the followingexample:Interviewer: How do you feel that conflicts of ideas areresolved in the scientific community?Student: In geophysics (...) people seem to be able tochange around their views a bit to fit the data and thatseems a bit silly but you can have it separate... I thinkhaving a number of separate theories and then just fittingto the data or new data coming in (...) then disprove oneof them, or leave the two running along side.Student 3.GIn this case, the student appears to recognise the model-like nature ofknowledge claims in geophysics, and furthermore that this makes the notionof empirical proof problematic. This student appeared to view conflict ingeophysics as resulting from the nature of geophysical knowledge claims. Inother areas of the transcript, this student refers to the role of social processesin validating knowledge claims.By contrast, some students’ comments suggested a very different view of thenature of knowledge claims when discussing the reasons for, and resolutionof, scientific conflicts. A number of students, for example, accounted forscientific conflicts in terms of the quality of data available to scientists, andargued that such conflicts would be resolvable by collecting more data ofbetter quality as illustrated in the following example:It might be that there’s something else like... oneparticular group they get this result because of the waythey do ... their different methods that they do, they usevery different methods from the other lab, so somethingmight have gone wrong or something. Or its notreproducible results.Student 3.IIt is interesting to note that student G - a geophysicist - was carrying out amodelling project whereas student I - a geneticist - was carrying out a project51
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