Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

Some fields labeled pseudoscientific primarily offer negative arguments against established science rather than developing their own positive, testable proposals. Scientific status depends partly on positive contributions.

Pseudoscientists have ready explanations for any observational result, turning apparent counterevidence into support. Science tolerates failures of fit but uses them to refine theories

Pseudoscience often finds confirming evidence everywhere, making its claims essentially unfalsifiable. In contrast, genuine science seeks to falsify hypotheses.

Thomas Kuhn challenged traditional views by emphasizing the history of science. He introduced the concept of paradigms and argued that rival paradigms can be incommensurable, lacking a neutral standard for comparison.

Karl Popper proposed falsification as the criterion to distinguish science from pseudoscience. Unlike positivists, he denied that scientists seek to confirm theories; genuine science seeks to refute hypotheses.

I’ve come to enjoy the reaction of adults (including teachers, principals, etc., parents, business people...) who learn the purpose of public education is not to create people just like them. #edchat #education #school

Your assumptions are directly associated with your misunderstandings.

Every time I read a new treatment of “formative and summative assessment,” I become more convinced these are difficult to use and ineffective. #education #teaching

The students may not be able to see the thing I want to answer, or the subtleties I want to think about, but they remind me of a problem by asking questions in the neighborhood of that problem. It’s not so easy to remind yourself of these things. - Richard Feynman #students

AI Literate or ID Idiot. A blog post motivated by a student.
https://hackscience.education/2025/05/06/ai-literate-or-ai-idiot/

We are bombarded with too much [information] in our inordinately complex world; if we cannot sort the trivial from the profound,we are lost in terminal overload. -Stephen Jay Gould

Stasis is the norm for complex systems; change, when provoked at all, is usually rapid and episodic. -Stephen Jay Gould

Yeah, so the Earth may (surely will) survive human hubris... humans, not so much. #wisdom from #science

“The true beauty of nature is her amplitude; she neither exists for nor because of us....” -Stephen Jay Gould #wisdom from #scientist #biology This is why we study #science, without it we cannot gain such insight.

Absolute standards of performance is a poor way to evaluate capacity for competition in biological systems. I wonder why we insist they are appropriate for educational systems.

Why are insects largely absent from marine ecosystems (compared to terrestrial ecosystems)? That is a question worth study. #biology #STEM #Science

#edtech used exclusively for improving our ability to teach to and administer tests must be discarded.

#Schools in which #leaders and #teachers believe they should tell #students what they should learn demonstrate they misunderstand the role of curiosity in #learning.

The reason #students see no connection between #school and their goals may be they have no goals. Perhaps part of our job as #educators is to help them develop goals, directions, and interests.

Learning *within* a field is far more effective than learning *about* a field. #education #teaching