Türkiye’nin İç Anadolu Bölgesindeki Dört Üniversitede Akademisyenlerin Bilim Felsefesi ve Bilim Tarihi Alanlarına Duydukları İlgi Düzeyleri

Abstract

Aim: Determination of the level of interest in the fields of history of science and philosophy of science among academicians will contribute to the identification of the steps to be taken towards a solution to identify the problems that prevent producing knowledge and contributing to science and creating a more suitable scientific environment. The aim of this research is to reveal the level of interest in the fields of philosophy of science and history of science among academicians. Methods: In this research, conducted with the voluntary participation of 682 academicians from four different universities in the Central Anatolia Region, data were collected through face-to-face interviews between December 2019 and March 2020. The faculties where the data will be collected were determined according to OECD's categorical science fields, and then the number of academics to be interviewed was determined according to the frequencies of academic titles. The participants were asked to answer the two questions (i.e., “Are you interested in the philosophy of science?” and “Are you interested in the history of science?”) on a 5-point Likert-type data collection tool which was developed by the researcher. Findings: The average age of the academics participating in the research was 38.4±9.7 years and 44.6% of the participants were female. Of the academics participating in the study, 13.5% were professors (n=92), 14.4% were associate professors (n=98), 29.5% were lecturers (n=201) and 42.6% were research assistants (n=291). It was found that 52.3% of the academics were interested in the field of philosophy of science, while 10.1% were very interested in it. While the rate of academics who were interested in the history of science was 63.5%, the rate of those who were very interested in it was 10.7%. The level of interest in the history of science increased with age (p=0.019). Male academics (13.5% very interested) were more interested in the history of science than female academics (7.2% very interested) (p=0.034). It was determined that academics who are more experienced were more interested in the history of science and philosophy of science than less experienced academics (p