Permitting Creativity in Science

 What a phenomenal analogy to begin this article with, that of the science fiction novel. The sense that research does not exactly resemble what is described in the classroom is one that of course echoes into the profession of teaching as well. One of the first things I was told by an SA in my practicum was that it was unlikely I would actually do half of the things suggested in my courses. Now, I imagine one could take that as cynicism, but from the view of Van Manen or, it seems, Bavelas, there is indeed a measurable difference between the research and the practice.

The second stop I had while reading was in Bavelas' discussion of how to avoid killing hunches. She speaks about our desire/impulse to claim that an observation was due to random chance without considering the possibility that this was not the case. This seems, on the face of it, a very unscientific line of thinking. However, it is the line of thinking that an extraordinary number of the scientifically trained people I know employ. It's easy to take the scientific fact that one cannot prove a negative and then extrapolate that knowledge to suggest that any one piece evidence towards the existence of a positive is moot. As an example of this, I have an uncle who is an engineer and is quite derogatory towards all manner of things, including astrology. I myself don't put much stock in astrology, as I have yet to see compelling evidence of its virtue, but when any observation that might be interesting is raised, he is quick to claim that it can only be the result of confirmation bias. Arming people with words like "confirmation bias" and "anecdotal evidence" is a surefire way to kill hunches, in my observation. 

The third and final stop I experienced was less directly related to mathematics, but i found myself resonating very strongly with the description of the awkward social interaction between three individuals (the scan regrettably cut off the name that Bavelas used for it). I actually think of this interaction in the context of group problem-solving, when considering an appropriate number of students to have in a group. Often, especially in trios, two people are in conversation and the other is left to twiddle their thumbs. I'd be very interested, perhaps for Inquiry 2, to explore how group dynamics are affected by the size of the group in general terms.