Sometimes, when I talk about the importance of questioning in science, people ask, “But what is there to argue about … isn’t there only one right answer in science?”
The reality is that it doesn’t take long for a science curriculum to move into topics that students have little-to-no intuition about. Atoms? Tiny microbes that make us sick? Electric fields?
Without promoting a culture of critique that values questioning and argumentation, students are left to passively accept many scientific accounts on blind faith.
Even if science students don’t become scientists (which is typically the case), an epistemological mindset that embraces QUESTIONING (epistemic VIGILANCE, if you will) can pay dividends in industry. Check out this piece from the New York Times:
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