This anthology contains selected papers from the 'Science as Culture' conference held at Lake Como, and Pavia University Italy, 15-19 September 1999. The conference, attended by about 220 individuals from thirty countries, was a joint venture of the International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group (its fifth conference) and the History of Physics and Physics Teaching Division of the European Physical Society (its eighth conference). The magnificient Villa Olmo, on the lakeshore, provided a memorable location for the presentors of the 160 papers and the audience that discussed them. The conference was part of local celebrations of the bicentenary of Alessandro Volta's creation of the battery in 1799. Volta was born in Como in 1745, and for forty years from 1778 he was professor of experimental physics at Pavia University. The conference was fortunate to have had the generous financial support of the Italian government's Volta Bicentenary Fund, Lombardy region, Pavia University, Italian Research Council, and Kluwer Academic Publishers. The papers included here, have or will be, published in the journal Science & Education, the inaugural volume (1992) of which was a landmark in the history of science education publication, because it was the first journal in the field devoted to contributions from historical, philosophical and sociological scholarship. Clearly these 'foundational' disciplines inform numerous theoretical, curricular and pedagogical debates in science education. Contemporary Concerns The reseach promoted by the International and European Groups, and by the journal, is central to science education programmes in most areas of the world.

Editorial Introduction. Part One: History of Science, Education and Culture. Introduction. 1. History and Science Education: Cautionary Tales about the Agreement of Measurement and Theory; J. Heilbron. 2. Scientific Culture and Public Education; A. Cordero. 3. Galileo and the Rhetoric of Relativity; P. Machamer. 4. Fostering the History of Science in American Science Education; F.J. Rutherford. 5. Nature-of-Science Literacy in Benchmarks and Standards: Postmodern/Relativist or Modern/Reliast? R. Good, J. Shymansky. 6. The Epic Narrative of Intellectual Culture as a Framework for Curricular Coherence; R.N. Carson. 7. History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science (HPSS) in Science Education: Results from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study; H.A. Wang, W.H. Schmidt. Part Two: Foundational Issues in Science Education. Introduction. 8. Instrumentality, Hermeneutics and the Place of Science in the School Curriculum; J. Donnelly. 9. The Primacy of Cognition - or of Perception? A Phenomenological Critique of the Theoretical Bases of Science Education; B. Dahlin. Constructivism in School Science Education: Powerful Model or the Most Dangerous Intellectual Tendency? E. Jenkins. Philosophy of Chemistry: An Emerging Field with Implications for Chemistry Education; S. Erduran. 12. Narratives in Science Teaching: Some Results from an Investigation into Students' Interests; F. Kubli. 13. Values in Science: An Educational Perspective; D. Allchin. 14. Which Way is Up? Thomas Kuhn's Analogy to Conceptual Development in Childhood; A.T. Levine. 15. Saving Kuhn from the Sociologists; R. Nola. Part Three: History, Philosophy and Physics Education. Introduction. 16. The Effect of a History-Based Course in Optics on Students' Views about Science; I. Galili, A. Hazan. 17. Scientific Controversies in Teaching Science: The Case of Volta; N. Kipnis. 18. Newton and Colour: The Complex Interplay of Theory and Experiment; R. de Andrade Martins. 19. Methodology and Politics in Science: The Fate of Huygens' 1673 Proposal of the Seconds Pendulum as an International Standard of Length, and Some Educational Suggestions; M.R. Matthews. 20. Reconstructing the Basic Concepts of General Relativity from an Educational and Cultural Point of View; O. Levrini. 21. The Contribution of the History of Physics in Physics Education: A Review; F. Seroglou, P. Koumaras. Contributors. Name Index. Subject Index.