Post-positivist

If there are no laws in biology, then biological theories cannot be related to one another in ways that satisfy the post-positivist conception of reduction. For the bridge principles that this formulation of reduction requires are laws, and the derivations they consists of require laws. Without recourse to laws, reductionism must be rejected or reformulated. 

Doty, Roxanne Lynn. Foreign Policy as Social Construction A Post-positivist Analysis of US Counter-Insurgency Policy in the Philippines. International Studies Quarterly 37(3) (1993), pp. 297-320. 

Such issues are not just of academic interest to educators, when the question of how scientists come to know is a core part of science education (Hodson, 2009 Matthews, 1994). A post-positivist view of science (Taber, 2009b) sees it as a complex activity where judgements made cannot be based purely oti logical application of formal operational thought. 

In the pre-study texts positivistic ideas were predominant, while critical views were predominant in the post-study texts. Two students expressed opportunistic views in their pre-study texts, but these views were absent from their post-study texts. We can only speculate on wheflier the absence of opportunistic views in the post-study texts indicates that the project increased some students beliefs in science being neutral and objective. 

Comparison between pre- and post-study texts revealed that four students expressed positivistic views both in pre- and post-study texts. However, five students who had expressed positivistic views in their pre-texts expressed critical views in their post-texts. None of the students changed from having critical views to having positivist views. Thus, the Imitating-Science Project probably made an impact on some students epistemological thinking. 

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