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Teaching Optics: A Historico-Philosophical Perspective

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International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching

Abstract

This chapter reviews the attempts to include the history and philosophy of science (HPS) in the teaching of light and vision and the lessons learned from these attempts. This kind of curricular innovation requires special effort and draws on extensive research in learning theory and cognitive psychology and culturology, all applied to a science curriculum on light.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Theory is used here in the inclusive sense of a collection of knowledge elements about reality in a particular domain. A fundamental theory in physics includes principles, laws, concepts, models, experiments, problems, practical applications, apparatus, and other elements, all conforming to the same set of basic principles. The broad structure of this knowledge will be specified below.

  2. 2.

    See, for example, Andersson and Karrqvist (1983), Beaty (1987), Bendall et al. (1993), Bouwens (1987), Boyes and Stanisstreet (1991), Colin and Viennot (2001), Colin (2001), Feher and Rice (1988, 1992), Fetherstonhaugh et al. (1987), Fetherstonhaugh and Treagust (1992), Fleer (1996), Galili (1996), Galili et al. (1993), Goldberg and McDermott (1986, 1987), Guesne (1985), Jung (1981, 1982, 1987), La Rosa et al. (1984), Langley et al. (1997), Olivieri et al. (1988), Osborne et al. (1993), Perales et al. (1989), Ramadas and Driver (1989), Reiner et al. (1995), Reiner (1992), Rice and Feher (1987), Ronen and Eylon (1993), Saxena (1991), Schnepps and Sadler (1989), Segel and Cosgrove (1993), Selley (1996a, b), Singh and Butler (1990), Stead and Osborne (1980), and Watts (1985).

  3. 3.

    See, for example, Crombie (1959, 1990), Dijksterhuis (1986), Forbes and Dijksterhuis (1963), Gliozzi (1965), Lindberg (1992), Mason (1962), Pedersen and Phil (1974), Sambursky (1959), Steneck (1976), Whittaker (1960), and Wolf (1968).

  4. 4.

    See, for example, Boyer (1987), Dijksterhuis (2004), Emmott (1961), Endry (1980), Gaukroger (1995), Hakfoort (1995), Herzberger (1966), Kipnis (1991), Lauginie (2012), Lindberg (1976, 1978, 1985, 2002), Middleton (1961, 1963), Rashed (2002), Ronchi (1970, 1991), Russell (2002), Sabra (1981, 1989, 2003), Sambursky (1958), Shapiro (1973, 1993), Smith (1996, 1999), and Westfall (1962, 1989).

  5. 5.

    See, for example, Arons (1965), Galili and Hazan (2004, 2009), Kipnis (1992), Mach (1913/1926), Taylor (1941), and Hecht (1998).

  6. 6.

    Important original texts in optics include Aristotle (1952), Bragg (1959), Descartes (1637/1965), 1998, Fresnel (1866), Goethe (1810), Huygens (1690/1912), Kepler (1610/2000), Newton (1671/1974, 1704/1952), Ross (2008), and Young (1804, 1807).

  7. 7.

    The restriction of discussions to Type-A knowledge may be connected to the positivist philosophy seemingly prevailing in science classes (e.g., Benson 1989). This approach, however, does not adequately present controversies in scientific discourse or the educational complexity in facing specific misconceptions.

  8. 8.

    The proponents of this approach quote “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it,” attributed to George Santayana, and “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” Winston Churchill.

  9. 9.

    Lakatos (1978) considered a similar structure when he described scientific research programs. However, the contents of all areas become different when one represents the knowledge of a fundamental theory as a culture.

  10. 10.

    One may locate the laws of reflection and refraction in the nucleus of the theory (as Newton did, see in the following) or in the body of knowledge, that is, being proved basing on the principles of light path being minimal/extremal and its being reversible (as Heron and Archimedes did with reflection in the Hellenistic physics and Fermat – in the seventeenth century, with refraction). Both ways are educationally valid given that they are supported in the course of teaching-learning.

  11. 11.

    Newton’s numerical results on ray periodicity were of unprecedented accuracy for his time: for yellow-orange ray it was 1/89,000 in. (Newton 1704/1952, p. 285), well conforming to the half wavelength known today.

  12. 12.

    The quantitative account of the polarization of light was provided much later by Malus in the nineteenth century (Malus’ law), who introduced and described the polarization of light particles instead of Newton’s sides of light rays.

  13. 13.

    The list of Newton’s successes should also include the dynamic account of light behavior in the Principia and Newton’s polemics there with Descartes’ paradigm of plenum.

  14. 14.

    In the cultural approach, experiment may be affiliated to either body or periphery area within the triadic structure of theory knowledge.

  15. 15.

    See Sect. 4.5.1.

  16. 16.

    To be distinguished from the real world (the first one) and the personal world (the second one).

  17. 17.

    This simplified law of refraction can be used in teaching optical phenomena presented qualitatively (Galili and Goldberg 1996).

  18. 18.

    See Sect. 4.5.4.

  19. 19.

    See Sect. 4.5.2.

  20. 20.

    Educators may use an artistic metaphor to represent the transition from the epistemological credo of classical physics to that of the modern theories. The relief on the Nobel Prize medal for physics can be seen as representing the epistemology of classical physics, while a sketch depicting the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea may do the same for modern physics (Levrini et al. 2014; Galili 2013).

  21. 21.

    See Sect. 4.5.2.

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  1. The Amos de-Shalit Science Teaching Center, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel

    Igal Galili

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    Michael R. Matthews

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Galili, I. (2014). Teaching Optics: A Historico-Philosophical Perspective. In: Matthews, M. (eds) International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7654-8_4

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