What is the Concept of Scientific Method?

Concept of Scientific Method?

Special kinds of methods are being used by the scientists and persons engaged in scientific research activities. These methods of special kinds are termed as Scientific Methods. In reality, it is only through such methods that various kinds of problems are being solved out in scientific way. To impart information of various scientific facts and concepts, science teacher make use of scientific method.

It is important for the science teacher to understand that training in scientific methods is important to the students than merely acquisition of knowledge as it is through these methods that students are taught and trained in the method of solving various kinds of problems which get arise in their life.

Once the students are trained in such methods, then they will approach all the problems in the same manner. Such kind of students will be able to sort out the problems in new and changed conditions with scientific methods. Science teaching should invite reflective thinking on the part of students by which students will get encouraged to think scientifically and to act in accordance with scientific principles and rules.

Inadequate effort is done in this direction, although this has been recognised an one of the main objective of science teaching by majority of experts. Some experts are of the view that it is the spirit known as scientific spirit and attitude known as scientific attitude, mention of which has been done in the preceding chapter, that are important features of scientific methods and all the methods which are endowed with such qualities are known as scientific methods.

Some teachers are of the view that scientific methods get developed by themselves as a result of science teaching. Still, much emphasis is being laid to cover the range of content along with a number of laboratory exercises and problems which are given in the text books are generally read out by teachers as such without inviting any kind of reflective thinking from students. Reflective thinking, reasoning and drawing results from the achievement of certain abilities, skills and attitudes are the main constituents or important features of scientific methods.

For this, there is need of continuous training and it is an outgrowth of day to day work with problems relating to the students in an careful atmosphere where students can actively engaged themselves in various kinds of research and experimentation functions.

An important feature of scientific method is that they consist of systematic observation and classification of given data and interpretation is based on information obtained through such processes. In such methods, facts are being classified carefully and accurately. Their correlation and sequence are being observed properly and by the aid of creative imagination and self-criticism, observer make discovery of scientific laws.

While making use of such methods, teacher should adopt a democratic attitude and should encourage and help the students in every possible manner to explore the problems accurately and minutely. He should provide them with every possible help to find out the solutions and suggest the proposing ways of testing data.

Teacher should encourage the students to ask various kinds of questions, and should answer those questions in such a way that high level of self confidence gets build in them by which they can take part in process of science teaching actively. Teacher should encourage the students to get involved in those activities by which their ability to think logically and to criticise things can get developed. Not only this, teacher should provide the students with such situations in which they can find out the solutions of problems effectively and efficiently.

Various experts have defined the concept of Scientific Methods in their manner some of the definitions are as follows:

i. Scientific methods consist of systematic observation, classification and interpretation of data.

ii. Scientific methods are serial processes with the help of which all the sciences obtain answers of various questions.

From the above definition some of the it can be said that scientific methods consist of certain specific characteristic features, without mentioning which, it is not possible to understand them properly.