Scientific Concepts and Methods
To become a good scientist, one has to learn how to apply scientific methods and practices. It is equally important to learn how to rate the concepts and inferences used in science. In this one-week course the master students learn and practice critical reflection about scientific approaches and their own research projects. Individual reasoning and active participation of every single student in critical debates with peers and lecturers are favored by the small format of the course.
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Course description
Project description
Training in the life sciences usually focusses on teaching students how to apply scientific practices. While this is clearly important, it is insufficient if the goal is to educate students to become good, critical and responsible scientists. For this, students also need to learn and critically think about the concepts underlying their scientific research, hypotheses, methods, and inferences.
We have therefore designed a compulsory course that teaches Master students those concepts from the philosophy of science that are particularly relevant for the Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences. The link to modern, hands-on biomedical research is provided in thematically matched talks of leading experts from different disciplines who present a pivotal scientific method; The students learn how the method works, what assumptions it is based on, which variables it assesses, and what data transformations it employs.
We have set-up the one-week course so that every day is dedicated to a key concept from the philosophy of science and a thematically aligned scientific method. The methods discussed include (i) animal models in preclinical drug development and their power and limitations in predicting therapeutic efficacy in humans, (ii) medical imaging techniques (fMRI), (iii) big data analysis in health science and care, (iv) analytical methods that shaped the paradigms of inflammatory bowel disease, (v) practical applications of scientific results and the economization of science. The corresponding philosophical inputs are on (i) scientific reasoning and experimentation, (ii) the role of images in science, (iii) mathematization and digitization of science, (iv) continuous versus revolutionary developments in science, (v) applied versus basic research.
Each day, the philosophical and scientific topics are brought together in an interdisciplinary discussion between students, philosopher, and expert.
Critical thinking is most challenging when it is applied to one's own research; The experimental setups, assumptions and results need to be scrutinized, alternative approaches and interpretations need to be evaluated. We ask our students to reflect on their own scientific project work using the concepts introduced in the course. They write their thoughts onto the online whiteboard KNOW (Knowledge Network Online Whiteboard; http://www.ethz.ch/know) and discuss them with their peers. Having students reflect on their own experiments is an excellent method to get them deeply and also emotionally involved into critical reflections and scientific debates.
In the three years that we have taught the course by now, we were excited to see how actively the students shared, explained and discussed their thoughts on their own work. This has strengthened our belief that fostering and practicing critical thinking already in Master students is suitable to stimulate their independence, their intellectual flexibility, and responsibility in pursuing scientific research.
