Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

tell Weldon’s story here? A Weldonian
Why
might have been less simple, but
genetics
applicable and more revealing about the
more
between genes and the environment.
interaction
direction of enquiry has gathered
This
only relatively recently.
momentum
about scientific disagreement are
Stories
because they reveal that the losing
important
was not necessarily or obviously wrong,
side
if we have learned anything it is to
and
our own fallibility, to caution against
beware
and to be curious about
oversimplification
arguments lost to history. The stories that
the
tells about itself can be misleading,
science
presenting a story in which developments
by
together neatly to produce fundamental
come
recognized today. This is the Whiggish
truths
discussed in II.2.
view
concepts learned early in science education
The
if oversimplified, support stubborn and
can,
misconceptions if students do not
dangerous
their education to the level where
continue
is added back to simplifications.
complexity
scientists and teachers have stated
Reputable
the currently taught genetics curriculum
that
too simplistic. Consider the following quote
is
Jenny Lewis, of the Genetics Pedagogies
by
that explored the effects of changing the
Project
helping students to develop their
“When
of basic genetic concepts,
understanding
can be useful to reduce complexity by
it
a traditional, linear view of
adopting
expression (one gene, one protein,
gene
characteristic) but there is a risk that
one
9 discusses the merits and demerits of
Chapter
how the course of history
counterfactuals—asking
genetics in which every characteristic
of
determined by a single gene. The
is
unexpectedly confirmed by the
reality,
Genome Project, is that there
Human
very few single gene characteristics
are
disorders in humans … . Rather, the
or
between the genome (the
relationship
DNA sequence), gene expression,
entire
the environment was shown to
and
considerably more complex than
be
The result is a move away
anticipated.
a focus on single genes (genetics,
from
narrowly) and towards a
understood
of the whole genome and its
consideration
with the environment, internal
interactions
external (genomics).” (Lewis 2011)
and
Radick has similarly argued that
Gregory
students should be taught a genetics
biology
If we teach them about Mendel, we
“
do so not to fill them with slack-
should
wonder at his foundational
jawed
but to help them to
achievement,
how even the most imaginative
appreciate
rigorous science ... bears the stamp of
and
historical circumstances of its making.
the
learn that lesson about past science is
To
bring a welcome level of self-awareness
to
critical self-reflection to the present.”
and
and Lewis work on the Genetics
Radick
Project, an experimental syllabus
Pedagogies
imagines what a Weldonian approach
that
genetics might have looked like and what
to
it makes for students to be
difference
to it.
exposed
have been aected if key events had occurred
might
Compare this with the value of asking the
dierently.
question in science. Is it more or less dicult to
same
alternative histories or alternative sciences?
imagine
II. Perspectives
II. Perspectives
curriculum fit for the 21st century.
genetics curriculum.
(Radick 2016)
this will result in a deterministic view
Making connections
“What if … ?” in history and in the natural sciences
What can we learn from such an exercise?
187