Developing Epistemologically Empowered Teachers: An Approach to Preservice Physics Teacher Education Focusing on History and Philosophy of Science

It has been extensively acknowledged by educational researchers and teacher educators that the main goal of science education is to make student aware that science is an important component of our cultural heritage, with the final purpose of forming the citizen. In order to realize this goal, school science teachers need to possess a basic knowledge of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) that gives an overall perception of the subject taught in its relationships with other fields and everyday life. In the present chapter, attention is given to the problem of HPS in physics teachers education, by designing a model of intervention aimed at deepening and widening the teachers’ disciplinary knowledge as well as at developing an adequate knowledge of Nature of Science (NOS). The role of rationality in its historical evolution and the fundamental role of the scientist interacting with his social and cultural milieu, are analyzed. Some viewpoints of twentieth century history and philosophy of science are contrasted with incorrect descriptions of NOS, often assumed as implicit epistemological basis in science-culture dialogue and widening the gap between humanities and hard science. The chapter details a specific setting for the development of an approach to the epistemology of physics, grounded in the history of modern science and focused on the development of some physics fundamental concepts. The approach is framed in the present literature and preliminary results of its implementation in a Course for a Graduate Program of pre-service Teachers Education at the University of Palermo (Italy) are reported.