Course Overview

Purpose

Science education often reduces science to a body of facts and a sequence of steps (‘the scientific method’). This course recovers science as a way of reasoning: the habits of evidence evaluation, model revision, productive failure, and skeptical inquiry that define scientific thinking. Participants learn to teach science-as-thinking across disciplines, not just in science class.

Audience

K-12 teachers of all subjects (not just science), instructional coaches, administrators who evaluate science instruction. Particularly valuable for teachers who want to go beyond ‘the scientific method’ poster.

Prerequisites

None. No science background required—this is about thinking, not content.

Estimated Time

6-8 hours

Learning Outcomes

• Explain why ‘the scientific method’ as typically taught misrepresents how science actually works.
• Identify the key epistemic practices of science (evidence evaluation, model building, productive failure, peer critique) and describe how each can be taught.
• Design activities that require students to evaluate evidence quality rather than simply collect data.
• Differentiate between genuine scientific argumentation and ‘debate theater’ in classroom activities.
• Apply the concept of productive failure to lesson design: structure tasks where initial failure drives learning.
• Evaluate lab activities and inquiry tasks for whether they develop scientific thinking or merely follow procedures.
• Construct model-revision sequences where students iteratively improve explanations based on new evidence.
• Teach skeptical inquiry without fostering cynicism or science denial.