Abstract

“Epistemology, Science, and Scientific Education” is a theoretical and reflective essay that aims to review the historical, conceptual, and theoretical referents that constitute the basis of the development of scientific education, in order to address questions, issues, and discussions that guide the process to construct a scientific culture. In the first place, several conceptions of science are revised which, in the first instance, represent an internalist approach to science. The intention is to link them to the ways in which they are concretized in the curriculum throughout history. Second, this article proposes an analysis of some research related to the scientific education and the construction of a scientific culture. Finally, the reflections and recommendations that follow the discussion seek to rethink science in terms of what, how, and why it is taught, while they recognize the limitations and challenges that generating and socializing scientific knowledge face at present. Such challenges suggest that scientific education should be an action to construct a scientific culture, one with a broader meaning than the concept of scientific literacy, and one that comprises a set of interpretations, beliefs, meanings, feelings, experiences, and theories that shape individual and collective construction of ideas about science, its methods and practices.

Keywords: epistemology; science; education; culture