About the event
What is ‘science’? We know it’s the best way to understand the world around us, but it is not just a collection of unconnected knowledge, without context. Science depends on the scientific method, how that method is implemented, and the values and societal influences that are inherent to scientific knowledge and its development.
Before explaining how we can think about science more clearly, he will first take us on a whistlestop tour of ‘science’ gone wrong. Taking in creationists, climate change deniers, anti-vaccination proponents, astrologers, and flat Earth advocates, James will show how misconceptions about the scientific method, and lack of knowledge of the nature of science can lead to such wayward and often dangerous delusions.
About the speaker
James Williams is a lecturer in education at the University of Sussex. His work has focused on trying to discover why people believe in pseudoscience such as creationism or astrology, and on the differences between ‘belief in’ and ‘acceptance of’ facts. Not restricted to theological pseudoscience, he has also successfully campaigned against the use of ‘brain myths’ in teaching, such as so-called ‘learning styles’ and the left/right brain personalities myth.
He is a science textbook writer and author of many professional books on teacher training and science education. His most recent book was a guide for science teachers, on ‘how science works’; his next book is due to be published in 2020. James is a columnist for local and national newspapers and magazines, and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio and television news on issues relating to education. He graduated in geology, having specialised in evolutionary paleontology and taught science in state comprehensive schools for over 12 years. His doctoral research looked at the political, educational and organisational influences on the inclusion of the nature of science in the science national curriculum.