How Scientists Think in the Real World: Implications for Science Education

Research on scientific thinking and science education is often based on introspections about what science is, interviews with scientists, prescriptive accounts of science, and historical data. Although each of these approaches is valuable, each lacks some key components of what scientists do, which makes it difficult to determine what scientists are being trained for and what essential thinking and reasoning tools they must have. The research reported herein sought to determine the cognitive processes underlying reasoning in science using two approaches. The first is to bring participants into the laboratory and give them scientific problems to work on. The second is to investigate real scientists as they work at their own problems. Both approaches make it possible to propose several thinking and reasoning strategies that are conducive to making discoveries. Both also make it possible to understand some of the basic cognitive mechanisms underlying scientific thinking.