1. The Logic of Science And Teaching Physics. By: Gnerikh Golin
Touro College, NY

2. The Logic of Science and Teaching Physics
Increasing educational demands on the process of teaching makes us resort to the problem of the relation between the logic of science and the logic of an educational subject.

3. The Logic of Science and Teaching Physics
In the course of their professional activities, when studying the process of passing scientific information to the next generation, methodologists always deal with two distinct objects:
Basic science and related scientific cognition, and
the educational subject corresponding to the scientific cognition.
What is the relation between these objects, what are their similarities and differences, what changes occur in the system of scientific knowledge in the process of conversion of a science into an educational course, what is meant by the more and more frequent appeals of methodologists to follow the logic of science when designing an educational subject?

4. The Logic of Science and Teaching Physics
The attempt to answer the questions raised above has first of all made it necessary to differentiate between the following concepts: The logic of physics as science and the logic of physics as an educational subject.

5. The Logic of Physics
The process of scientific cognition as a whole is characterized by a certain logic. It is revealed in the fact that the main stages of the indicated process can be represented as a logically closed scheme – namely a chain:

6. The Logic of Physics
Discovering and accumulating facts that have found no explanation within the paradigm.
Generalizing this facts by advancing general principles (hypotheses) that allow one to explain new facts.
Developing a theory (that is, specifying the hypotheses and designing a mathematical apparatus).
Obtaining consequences from the developed theory. And,

7. The Logic of Physics
experimentally testing the obtained consequences. (Golin, 1993). It is in this way that the majority of physical theories were built, such as Newton’s mechanics (including the law of universal gravity), thermodynamics, the electromagnetic field theory, the special and general theories of relativity, Bohr’s atomic theory, and so on (Bohr, 1976).

8. The Logic of Physics
Regardless of a specific theoretical structure, a scientific process always begins and ends with facts discovered in the experiment (Gamow, 1961). It is the second stage, namely, the birth of a hypothesis, that is intuitive and illogical in nature; but then, that is the most crucial moment in scientific work, which needs its genius. The third and fourth stages reflect the acquisition of new knowledge in a purely deductive (logic) way.

9. The Logic of Physics as an Educational Subject
An educational subject undoubtedly has to be organized logically, otherwise the process of learning would be reduced to the mechanical memorization of uncoordinated scientific facts, laws, and definitions. So what can become a basis of designing the logic of an educational subject?

10. The Logic of Physics as an Educational Subject
First of all, it is the structure of a basic science, including fundamental theories, accepted methods of research, and logical conclusions such as induction, deduction, analogy, hypothesis, mathematical proof, experiment, mental experiment, idealization, modeling, and so forth. (Golin, 1985). This implies that at any stage of education, the logic pattern of an education subject will, to certain extent, be a projection of a college textbook.

11. The Logic of Physics as an Educational Subject
Of course if in the process of education, we set ourselves the task of preparing scientists, that case at hand would only be the strict correspondence between an educational subject and the paradigm; otherwise, the existing group of scientists would not accept our graduates and they would not be able to work as scientists. However if an educational subject is to have different objectives, for instance, that of general education, then the connection with the existing paradigm turns out to be less imperative. In particular, it is sufficient for the logical structure of an educational subject to be isomorphic to the paradigm.

12. The Logic of Physics as an Educational Subject
The logic of an educational subject determined by number of psychological and pedagogical requirements, in particular, that of the accessibility of educational material, its correspondence with the students’ cognitive abilities, the possibility of forming and developing cognitive interest, and so forth.

13. The Logic of Physics as an Educational Subject
The logic of an educational subject does not stem from uniquely from the logic of science. It is deliberately designed by educators for the purpose of following certain methodological instructions prompted by the goals of education and by didactic principles. Hence, it follows that there is no immanent and preset logic of an educational subject that would require compulsorily one and the only logic pattern of arranging an educational subject.

14. The Logic of Physics as an Educational Subject
The same content of the educational course can be realized by means of several isomorphic and thus equally acceptable logical patterns coordinated with the existing the logic of science. The choice of one or another pattern of arranging the course is determined by the goals of education, the type of educational institution, the period of education, the existence of the relations between subjects as well as by a number of other conditions. The choice of the best possible logical structure of the course is one of the most essential tasks of methodology, the solution of which will determine to a considerable extent the success of the whole process of education

15. References:
Gamow, G. (1961). Biography of physics. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Golin, G. (1985). Methods of scientific cognition in education. Sovetskaja Pedagogika, 3,
Golin, G. (1993). Methodological analysis of historical experiments. “SHIPS Teachers’ Network News, 3(3). 2-3.
Golin, G. (1997). Structure of Scientific Knowledge and Cirriculum Design. “Interchange”, Vol. 28/2 & 3,
Pinskij, A. & Golin, G. (1983). Logic of Science and Logic of and Educational subject. Sovetskaja Pedagogica, 12,
Wigner, E.P. (1970). Symmetries and Reflections. Bloomington & London: Indiana University Press