Norman Edmund’s Educational Blog

Robert Millikan (1863-1953). A foremost scientist in his day, Millikan is famous for his oil drop experiment. In his speech before the New York Herald Tribune Forum in October 1938, he said:
“In this progress made by science lies all our hope for the future in the field of human betterment (justice); for the rational, objective, […]

Philosophers of science have contributed a great deal to the development of the scientific method. I drew heavily on their work in my research. However, their greatest contribution has been to the logical methods used in its ingredients. Since the scientific method must be viewed as just a guide as to how scientists and other […]

The Wikipedia encyclopedia says:
“A profession is an occupation that requires extensive training and the study and mastery of specialized knowledge, and usually has a professional association, ethical code and process of certification or licensing. Examples are law, medicine, finance, the military, nursing, the clergy and engineering.”
There is no standard definition of a modern professional, however. […]

A science is best described by what has been developed over the centuries and what exists in the natural sciences today. (There are sciences that are not natural sciences.) It would help in the teaching of science if we had an official teaching description of a science. The description should be one the public can […]

On January 23, 2002, Congress passed HR 3801, with the official short title of Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002.
A brief search of the internet didn’t turn up anything helpful in defining education sciences. Historically, Dewey and others used the term “science of education,” but I don’t recall the use of the term “education sciences.”
However, […]

An interesting article appeared in The New York Times on January 5, 2006. It is “Pity the Scientist Who Discovers the Discovered” by Gina Kolata. It explains how many scientists discover something only to find that other people have discovered the same thing. Often the discoveries have appeared in the literature, but under other […]

In the decades to come, with the explosion of knowledge and information, we will have to rely less on subject matter and more on the use of methods. Without method, we are left with chance. The world would be chaotic without methods and techniques. But what is “method”? The word is subject to a wide […]

In his State of the Union address, President Bush made this statement:
“And to keep America competitive, one commitment is necessary above all. We must continue to lead the world in human talent and creativity. Our greatest advantage in the world has always been our educated, hard-working, ambitious people, and we are going to keep that […]

From an article “Where Science and Public Policy Intersects, Researchers Offer a Short Lesson on Basics” (The New York Times, January 31, 2006) by Cornelia Dean:
“Some criticize these briefings as little more than showboating. But Mr. Boehlert, like many others, thinks they are ‘absolutely’ useful. And the briefing was unusual in that its subject was […]