A Whiteheadian Process Perspective on Model-Based Science Teaching

In our contribution, we will explore the potential benefits and impacts that follow from a shift in science teaching. In particular we will investigate the move from teaching science through the transmission of inert pieces of knowledge, individual proofs or guided practice-experiments, to teaching science through involved engagement with explanatory models. We begin our investigation with Alfred North Whitehead’s vision of education through the lens of process philosophy and the process philosophical claim that teaching should be an adventure of ideas, not a passive consumption of information. After establishing the conceptual and philosophical background that led us to the conclusion that creativity and active and guided experimentation are integral to teaching and learning, we will argue that model-based teaching (MBT) is an excellent approach to achieving just such creative and adaptive teaching. We will enhance this discourse by adding pedagogical reasons as to why such an approach should be pursued. We will then analyse the potential impact of this shift from a static, object focused teaching approach to a dynamic, engaged model-based teaching approach by using a concrete case study, Jenin. Jenin is an aspiring teacher who enrolled in a one-year secondary science teacher education program at a public university in North America that incorporated model-based teaching (MBT). We will follow Jenin’s developments and her first-person assessment of model-based teaching to substantiate the general claims derived from the initial conceptual analysis.