Journal Entry #2

Rationalism, Empiricism and Scientific Method

EDUC 800 – Ways of Knowing

Erin Peters

At a recent science department meeting in my building, Williamsburg Middle School, we discussed the purpose of assigning students a science fair project. Due to concerns voiced by parents, the science department was forced into making a policy concerning the science fair. We were being rationalists in making this decision. Roughly half of the science teachers thought having a required independent research project was beneficial to the students, while the other half of the science teachers thought that forcing students through a project was counterproductive. They felt that students would be better served with an optional independent project that was completed outside of school time. None of us had any evidence whether students benefit from an independent research project at all. We began from the foundational concept that students would learn how to think like scientists if they completed an independent research project. Although we disagreed on the format of such a project, we were all being rationalists in our grounds for our stance. The teachers who wanted the project to be required believed that everyone would benefit from the project, if they just went through the work. The teachers who wanted the independent project to be optional felt that forcing students through a project would cause negative student feelings toward science and reduce the chances of students completing a project in high school. Regardless of the opinion of the teachers, we were making the decision based on rationalism because we started with a foundational concept, not experience or recorded observations.

As I thought about how ways of knowing is involved in my daily life, I began to find more and more instances of situations that on the surface appear to be empiricism, but tend more towards rationalism. For instance, as an eighth grade science teacher, I need to place each of my students in a science class in their first year of high school. It appears on the surface that I make empirical decisions because I have the opportunity to observe how students behave, their habits of mind, and their work ethic. Although I have grounding in each student’s abilities and efforts, the course that I place them into, biology, is a very different course than the one I teach, physical science. Physical science, as taught in my classroom, uses inductive strategies to try to find patterns in matter and energy. Biology in high school focuses more on nomenclature, memorizing, and categorizing. Although it seems that I make empirical decisions, I am really making rational decisions because I don’t really understand how each of my students can perform given a different set of cognitive tasks. The process of placing students in high school classes seems empirical because I gather information about student interactions throughout the year, but tends more toward rationalism because I do not know how they can perform in a class that has different cognitive demands.

Another example of a situation appearing to be empiricist, but has rationalist tendencies is the decision for future special education services made at Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings. An IEP meeting consists of a team of professionals, each with different expertise, that provide information to help the team make a decision regarding the future services each special education student. Although it appears that empirical decisions are being made because each member of the team hears evidence about student interactions and test scores, the team makes their decision based on the policy given in the IDEA law. That is, even if the professionals agree that the student needs special education services, but the student doesn’t meet the specifications of the law, the student is denied services. The law is not based on empirical evidence, but on the foundational concept that each student should be given the “least restrictive environment” available. The rational ideas in the law override any empirical evidence that the professionals can give at the meeting.

As an item writer for the Ohio state math and science tests for kindergarten through eighth grade, I see both empiricism and rationalism at work in the process of readying questions as actual test items. The company that organizes the process gives us, the item writers, the standards to direct the question content, and asks the writers to be creative in developing questions. Item writers are rational in their decisions regarding composition of questions because we are not given any information about our audience except grade level. Students in a particular grade level do not necessarily have the same cognitive abilities, so item writers make decisions based on their “gut feelings” about questions. Item writers operate on the foundational concept that a contextually rich question is a valuable question. Once questions are written and submitted, review committees made up of citizens, teachers and administrations from Ohio meet to edit the questions and decide if they are appropriate for their students. The review committees are more empirical in their decisions, because they are based on prior experiences with students in Ohio.

One of the most genuine uses of the scientific method in daily life occurred when I took my four year old daughter, Kaela, ice skating for the first time. We went to the rink, and she wanted to watch the skaters. After observing what skating entailed (finding patterns), she decided to try it. She tested out double bladed skates and single bladed skates and decided skating would be easier on single bladed skates. Now that her background research was complete, Kaela tried different methods of skating. Actually you wouldn’t call it skating, she was just trying to stand up. She tested methods of holding on the wall, pushing a bucket in front of her, and holding on to my hand. By the end of an hour on the rink, she was managing to get around the rink by herself without falling. Kaela tested out different variables and concluded by choosing the variables that were most successful in helping her to be in motion on her skates.