Thesis ID: CBB566169313

Engaging Experiments: U.S. Science Education Before the Laboratory Method (2022)

unapi

The direct involvement of students in conducting experiments in order to learn science has been a common part of U.S. educational practice since the late 19th century, the result of the rapid spread of what was known as the “laboratory method” of teaching. Those promoting the laboratory method recognized it as a new educational approach, often crediting it to European exemplars that were then “imported” into American educational institutions. Yet the extended history of science instruction in the U.S., including earlier attempts at laboratory-based instruction, raises questions about the American context of this pedagogical development and how earlier generations of scientists prepared themselves and their students for scientific work. In this dissertation, educational uses of the laboratory and the experiment during this earlier period are examined through the work of three American scientists in the early-to-mid 19th century: Benjamin Silliman (Sr.), professor at Yale; Amos Eaton, professor at Rensselaer School/Institute (later Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute); and Eben N. Horsford, professor at Harvard’s Lawrence Scientific School. In examining the ways in which these scientists integrated the scientific experiment into their educational endeavors, this work shows that instructional uses of science experiments examined reflect complex interactions between scientific epistemology (ideas of how scientific knowledge is produced) and educational philosophy (ideas of how individual knowledge is developed through education). Furthermore, this dissertation establishes an important prehistory for the development of the laboratory method, particularly considering how experimental science became part of the tumultuous landscape of American higher education as academic institutions sought to determine their best form and purpose.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB566169313/

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Authors & Contributors
Garik, Peter
Dennis, David Brandon
Boesch, Brandon
Pisano, Jessica M.
Benétreau-Dupin, Yann
Lawson, R. A.
Concepts
Teaching; pedagogy
Science education and teaching
Experiments and experimentation
Laboratories
Physics
Universities and colleges
Time Periods
19th century
21st century
20th century, late
20th century, early
20th century
Meiji period (Japan, 1868-1910)
Places
United States
Great Britain
Germany
Japan
France
Finland
Institutions
National Science Foundation (U.S.)
University of Pennsylvania
University of Chicago
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