Physics students’ opposition to conspirituality a quantitative analysis of the ‘scientific skepticism’ of Norwegian physics students
| Autor: | Ronny Kjelsberg |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2024 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Cogent Education, Vol 11, Iss 1 (2024) |
| Druh dokumentu: | article |
| ISSN: | 2331186X 2331-186X |
| DOI: | 10.1080/2331186X.2024.2410093 |
| Popis: | Recent years have seen a rise in interest in how education can foster critical thinking and discourage epistemically unwarranted beliefs. Considering this, this paper seeks to explore whether master’s physics students are more critical and skeptical in the philosophical tradition of ‘Scientific skepticism’, than 1st year students. This is done by testing various quantitative variables in a survey of both 1st year and master’s Norwegian physics students. 177 respondents answered a range of questions on a 7-point Likert scale, which were then grouped into constructs and validated. This paper statistically validates several psychological constructs and gains new insight into others. The results show strong disbelief among physics students in constructs connected to the concept of conspirituality. It can in general not confirm a general increased skepticism among the master’s students compared to 1st year students. In several constructs, there is however an interesting difference in the standard deviation between 1st year and master’s students. These results open a wider discussion around aspects of the values and culture of science in physics education. This paper further discusses how it is important to have a conscious attitude toward the epistemic values we mediate through a physics education and have well-thought-out ideas of how we engage with the ideas the physics student enters their education with. |
| Databáze: | Directory of Open Access Journals |
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