Concept
Lederman and colleagues (2002) listed tentativeness among the nature-of-science (NOS) aspects students should learn, alongside empirical basis, theory-ladenness, creativity and social and cultural influence. Tentative does not mean wrong; it means knowledge is refined as evidence accumulates.
Philosophical background
Popper held that no theory can be finally verified; theories that survive attempts at falsification are accepted provisionally. Kuhn described how crises in normal science lead to paradigm shifts.
Examples
- Geocentrism to heliocentrism through Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo.
- Continental drift to plate tectonics: Wegener's idea was accepted after seafloor-spreading evidence in the 1960s.
- Pluto: reclassified as a dwarf planet by the IAU in 2006.
- Newtonian mechanics: refined by relativity at speeds near light.
Why it matters
Understanding tentativeness presents science as ongoing inquiry rather than facts to memorise, and helps people distinguish scientific consensus from misinformation.
References
- Lederman, N. G., Abd-El-Khalick, F., Bell, R. L., & Schwartz, R. S. (2002). Views of nature of science questionnaire. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39(6), 497-521.
- Popper, K. R. (1959). The Logic of Scientific Discovery. Hutchinson.
- Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of Chicago Press.