KOUMARA, Anna1, GOUTZAMANIS, Athanasios1, POLATOGLOU, Hariton M.1 and
SEROGLOU, Fanny2
1
School of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR-54124
Thessaloniki, Greece
2
School of Primary Education, Faculty of Education, Aristotle University of
Thessaloniki, GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Teaching the Interrelations of Science and Society: A Set of Role-plays
on the Social and Cultural Context of Science
Abstract. A set of four role-plays has been designed based on the study of the
biographies of scientists, their work and their social and cultural context. Four case
studies have been selected as each one may represent one of the following kinds of
interrelations between science and society: the cultural, the moral, the utilitarian and the
democratic interrelations. The four role-plays have been carried out during a teacher
training course for in-service teachers at Didaskalio ‘Dimitris Glinos’ at the School of
Primary Education of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the qualitative analysis
of the videotaped sessions indicates that in-service teachers appreciate role-playing in
science, while their introduction to the social and cultural context around the scientific
work offers them a new wider perspective to understand and teach science.
Anna Koumara: akouma@physics.auth.gr
Athanasios Goutzamanis: agoutz@physics.auth.gr
Hariton M. Polatoglou: hariton@auth.gr
Fanny Seroglou: seroglou@eled.auth.gr
Introduction
This paper is an attempt to design, develop and evaluate instructional material for
introducing in-service teachers to an image of the scientist as a member of society that
acts and interacts with the social and cultural parameters of his or her era.
Scientists’ perspectives and motives come from their personal reframing of the cultural,
political, philosophical, moral characteristics of their contemporary society coupled with
their individual role inside and outside the world of science.
This approach of teaching science in its social and cultural context offers to teacher
training the advantage of making the teaching and learning of science more interesting
and appealing, not to mention that in this form science ‘makes sense’ to the non-expert.
Interrelations of science and society
The interrelations of science and society concern both the inner structure of the scientific
community as well as its operation to the wider social context. The meeting of history,
philosophy and sociology of science indicates four main kinds of interrelations: the
cultural, the moral, the utilitarian and the democratic interrelations (Seroglou &
Koumaras 2001).
For each one of the above kinds of interrelations a case study from the history science
has been selected and elaborated in order to design and develop instructional material for
in-service teacher training. The four case studies are the following:
First case focused on cultural interrelations: After the first world war, writers and
philosophers focused on Lebensphilosophie (a philosophy about life) and Weltanshaung
(a theory about the world) instead of scientific results that were perceived as very
materialistic and causality driven (Kragh 1999). A group of four scientists, Bohr,
Heisenberg, Pauli and Dirac and their work on modern quantum mechanics expressed the
ideas introduced by their contemporary cultural context, as the quantum mechanics
theory openly confronted the microphysics causality.
Second case focused on moral interrelations: In Germany in 1933 a special law was
activated and many scientists of Jewish origin lost their jobs and gradually were driven to
leave the country (Beyerchen, 1977). Untill 1940 among the scientists that left Germany
were many already awarded Nobel prize winners such as Einstein, Franck, Hertz,
Schrodinger, Hess and Debye and many others who got a Nobel prize some time later
such as Stern, Bloch, Born, Winger, Bethe, Gabor, Hevesy, Herzberg and Meitner.
Third case focused on utilitarian interrelations: By the end of the 19th century and in the
first part of the 20th century, science is more and more appreciated for the influence of
scientific and technological products on people’s lives, for the interactions between
science and technology and for the feedback coming from the data of the use of those
products in every day life and reshaping the trends of scientific research (Cahan 1985).
Research in thermodynamics, electromagnetism, optics, radiation supported the industrial
research and development and the work of scientists such as Curie, Siemens, Helmholtz,
Campbell and Pupin became part of the history of companies such as Armet de Lisle,
Auer, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) and Siemens and Halske.
Fourth case focused on democratic interrelations: During and right after the French
revolution the work of Carnot senior and junior in thermodynamics was caught in the
middle of a disagreement between the two of them (Serge 1983). The father Carnot
supported that science should be abstract and expressed through mathematics, while the
son Carnot supported that science should be simple and expressed in simple ways,
without too much mathematics involved, because only then science would be understood
and appreciated by all the people (experts and non-experts) reflecting the democratic
ideals of the revolution.
Role-playing in science for in-service teacher training
The above four cases from the history of science offered the background for the design ad
development of instructional material based on the study of the biographies of scientists,
their work and their social and cultural context. The developed instructional material
supported four role-plays that have been carried out during a teacher training course for
in-service teachers at Didaskalio ‘Dimitris Glinos’ at the School of Primary Education of
the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in the academic year 2006-2007. The qualitative
analysis of the videotaped sessions indicates that in-service teachers appreciate roleplaying in science, while their introduction to the social and cultural context around the
scientific work offers them a new wider perspective to understand and teach science.
References
Beyerchen, A. D.: 1977, Scientists under Hitler: Politics and the Physics Community in
the Third Reich, New Haven: Yale University Press.
Cahan, D.: 1985, ‘The Institutional Revolution in German physics, 1865-1914’, HSPS,
15, 1-65.
Kragh, H.: 1999, Quantum Generations – A History of Physics in the Twentieth Century,
Princeton University Press.
Serge, E.: 1983, Personaggi e scoperte de la fisica classica, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore
Spa, Milano.
Seroglou, F. & Koumaras, P.: 2001, ‘The Contribution of the History of Physics in
Physics Education: A Review’, Science & Education, 10(1-2), 153-172.