Scientific Thinking and Its Types

The Difference Between Man and Other Living Beings

• Man possesses the ability to think, which enables him to build civilizations and adapt to the environment.

Definition of Science

• Science is an intellectual activity that involves observing, describing, experimenting, and explaining natural phenomena.

Types of Thinking

• Unscientific Thinking includes superstitious, fictional, thinking with other minds, trial and error, and individual experience based thinking.
• Scientific Thinking includes:
  • Reflective Thinking
  • Reasoning Thinking
  • Rational Thinking
  • Critical Thinking
  • Metaphysic Thinking
  • Mathematical Thinking
  • Creative Thinking
  • Visual Thinking Network
  • Systemic Thinking
  • Lateral Thinking

Scientific Thinking: Mathematical and Creative

• Scientific thinking encompasses various forms, including mathematical and creative thinking.

Definition of Scientific Thinking

• Scientific thinking is a complex mental activity involving specific characteristics and features.
• It involves a systematic approach to solving problems through observation, induction, and inference.

Characteristics of Scientific Thinking

• Human Process: Scientific thinking is driven by human curiosity and seeks material reasons for universal phenomena.
• Objective Process: It aims to solve problems, study phenomena, and understand theories and laws.
• Organized Process: It follows specific steps where each step completes the other.
• Integrated Process: It considers the situation as a whole, studying all possibilities and conditions that may affect it. It is characterized by accuracy and knowledge comprehension.
• Flexible Process: Scientific thinking is not limited to one approach, and results can be revised and modified.
• Creative Process: Scientific thinking is not a sequential process but encompasses creativity.

Aims of Scientific Thinking

• Description: Recording observations of facts, things, phenomena, and their relationships
• Interpretation: Understanding the reasons behind occurrences and phenomena, using analytical and evaluative thinking.
• Prediction: Anticipating future events based on gathered information and scientific theories.
• Control: Understanding conditions that influence phenomena, preventing their occurrence by controlling influencing factors.
• Getting New Knowledge: Utilizing scientific laws to develop tools and equipment.

Basic Scientific Thinking Processes

• These are intellectual processes to discover the universe, conduct experiments, explain data, and formulate theories and laws.
• They are methods and techniques used to solve problems and access information.

Basic Scientific Thinking Processes - Detailed

• Observation: Using senses and tools to accurately check and record things, incidents, or phenomena.
• Experimenting: Testing a phenomenon, result, or hypothesis accurately.
• Classification: Grouping things or incidents based on specific features.
• Measuring: Quantitatively assessing characteristics using measuring tools.
• Analysis:
  • Physical Analysis: Decomposing complex things into simple elements.
  • Intellectual Analysis: Analyzing quantities and patterns, used in mathematics.
• Synthesis: Combining simple elements into complex ones or moving from reasons to results.
• Interpreting Data: Drawing conclusions based on collected data to explain a problem.
• Formulating Hypothesis: Suggesting solutions to a specific problem with examination and testing of alternatives.
• Using Numbers: Applying mathematical principles to analyze and understand data
• Using Space and Time Relations: Describing how space relations change with time (e.g., calculating velocity).
• Inference: Drawing conclusions based on given information and data.
• Prediction: Anticipating future events based on previous information and scientific theories.

Observation: Skills Involved

• Recognizing features of phenomena or things through senses.
• Formulating observations in a quantitative way.
• Differentiating between observation and inference.
• Identifying the difference between similar things.

Scientific Hypothesis: Conditions for Formation

• Based on observations and experiments.
• Accurate and clear.
• Consistent with natural laws.
• Explain all the phenomena to which it applies.
• Limited in number.