Annex I

Definitions of the axes of Nott y Wellington’s questionnaire (2000, pp. 312-313) for determining the profile of the concept of the nature of science [Free translation by the authors]

1. Relativism/positivism

Relativistic: You deny that things are true or false if you base your thinking only on an independent reality. The “truth” of a theory depends on the rules and rationality of a social group considered, as well as the experimental techniques used to evaluate it. The perceptions and truth of scientific theories vary from one individual to another and from one culture to another. Example: truth is relative, not absolute.

Positivist: You really believe that scientific knowledge is more “valid” than other forms of knowledge. The laws and theories generated by experiments are the descriptions of the patterns we see in a real, objective, external world. For the positivist, science is the primary source of truth. The positivist recognizes empirical facts and observable phenomena as the raw material of science. The work of the scientifist is to establish objective relationships between the laws that govern facts, and what can be observed. The positivist rejects examining root causes and fundamental origins.

2. Inductivism/deductivism

Inductivist: You believe that the work of the scientist is the interrogation of Nature. Through observation of particular cases, one can infer `from the particular, and then determine the basic laws and theories. According to Inductivism, scientists generalize inductively from a set of observations to reach a universal law. Scientific knowledge is built by induction based on a sure group of observations.

Deductivist: In our definition this means that you believe that scientists proceed by means of the evaluation of ideas produced by a logical sequence of everyday theories, or of their bold and imaginative ideas. According to deductivism (or hypothetical-deductive reasoning), the scientist’s reasoning consists of the formation of hypotheses not established by empirical data, but suggested by them. Science, therefore, proceeds to evaluate the observable consequences of those hypotheses; for example, the observations are directed or headed by hypotheses—they are loaded theories.

3. Contextualism/decontextualismo

Contextualism: You hold the view that the truth of scientific knowledge and processes is interdependent with the culture in which scientists live, and in which their work is carried out.

Descontextualismo: You hold the view that scientific knowledge is independent of its cultural location and its sociological structure.

4. Process/Content

Process: You see science as a distinct collection of identifiable methods/processes. Learning is an essential part of education in science.
Content: You think science is characterized by facts and ideas that it has, and that the essential part of science education is the acquisition and management of “this body of knowledge.”

5. Instrumentalism/realism

Instrumentalism: You believe that scientific theories and ideas are good while they work, that is, they allow correct predictions to be made. These are tools we can use, but they tell us nothing about independent reality or truth itself.

Realism: You believe that scientific theories are statements about a world that exists in a space and time independent of scientists’ perceptions. Correct theories describe things that actually exist in a manner independent of the scientists—for example, atoms and electrons.