2017 Volume 57 Issue 4 Pages 351-358
The authors attempted to construct Junior High school science lessons based on Quine’s notion of holism (1992). Holism points out that observations and experiments cannot judge an individual theory, but can judge the system of the theories. The teaching method used in these classes was favorably received by the pupils (Tonishi and Sano, 2012; Fukuta, Oshima and Tonishi, 2013; Fukuta and Tonishi, 2014; Fukuta and Tonishi, 2015). This paper is aimed at proposing the methodology and the theories that provided the background used for constructing these classroom practices. The methodology: 1. Points out the scientific knowledge as the teaching objectives, and the teacher constructs the concept map of these types of knowledge with the aim of clarifying the conceptual structure of the teaching content. 2. Plans the classroom lesson, setting the learning objectives and the keywords from these objectives. 3. Implements the lesson (via observation or experiment) and evaluates the teaching objectives. 4. As the concluding activity of the lesson, a concept map is constructed by the learners, with the help of the teacher. Concept maps show the conceptual texture of a theory as a network of knowledge that can be judged via observation and/or experiment. Observed facts can only be interpreted scientifically in this network. A concept map is a very useful tool to represent scientific theories as a network to support learners’ judgments of scientific knowledge through observation and/or experiment.
