Dr Michael Tan’s paper from Science Education journal was one of the most downloaded during its first 12 months of publication

Back in July 2022, Dr Michael Tan, Education Research Scientist at the Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice (CRPP), co-wrote a journal article titled “Learning to become ignorant: Improving the quality of epistemic knowledge in science education” in the Science Education journal. The paper was one of the most downloaded during its first 12 months of publication.

The article examines how an approach to science education might be different if one shifts the goals of communication to an appreciation of the ways in which one’s knowledge is limited, and how the practical boundaries of one’s knowledge can be closer than one thinks. The paper argues that public scientific literacy may be better served by more circumspect claims of validity, and crucially, an enhanced understanding of the ways in which materiality influences epistemic processes and limits one’s claims, and that a more open-handed embrace of the limits of one’s knowledge may serve as a better epistemic orientation for science instruction.