TEACHING CHEMISTRY AS RHETORIC OF CONCLUSIONS OR HEURISTIC PRINCIPLES - A HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This study has the following objectives: a) To show how the importance of history of chemistry has been recognized in the classroom, starting from the 1920s to the present; and b) How criteria based on history and philosophy of science can be used to evaluate presentation of atomic structure in general chemistry textbooks. Results obtained show that most of the new (1970-92) and old (1929-67) textbooks not only ignore the history and philosophy of science but also present experimental findings as a ‘rhetoric of conclusions.’ It is concluded that such presentations are not conducive towards a better understanding of scientific progress. It is suggested that history and philosophy of science can be introduced in the classroom not necessarily through formal courses in the history of chemistry or comments and anecdotes, but rather by incorporating the ‘heuristic principles’ that guided the scientists to elaborate their theories. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2000, 1, 315-322]