Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 1994
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994aas...185.0205z&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 185th AAS Meeting, #02.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 26, p.1310
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Many introductory astronomy courses for the non-science major take a somewhat historical approach, especially at the start of the course. At the University of New Mexico, we are developing an innovative course in a large (about 300 students) lecture format. The main thrust has been to restructure the traditional "descriptive" astronomy course into one that focuses on the process of science by identifying and linking essential concepts. The goal: to teach explicitly the structural knowledge of astronomy, which is clear to experts but opaque to novices. To focus on the process of science, we have decided to minimize a historical treatment of the material. But this strategy results in a cognitive twist. We know that students bring into class their personal world views, largely unexamined, about how nature works. Some of these alternative conceptions mimic pre-Newtonian notions and in a loose sense recapitulate the history of astronomy. Is taking a historical approach a good heuristic device for teaching introductory astronomy? Or does it reinforce alternative concepts and so confuse students? This work is supported in part by NSF grant DUE-9253983
Hall Shannon
Zeilik Michael
No associations
LandOfFree
Can Astronomy Be Taught Without History? does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Can Astronomy Be Taught Without History?, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Can Astronomy Be Taught Without History? will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1318298