Mon, Oct 21st 2019

Mid-term test (revised) by

Ayudaniska Mutmainnah

Philosophy of Science

Philosophy of science concerns with assumptions, foundations, methods, and the

implication of science. It has three basic concepts which are ontology, epistemology, and
axiology. These concepts are related to one another in the context of producing science and
knowledge. Firstly, we have to know what are those three main concepts and its relationship.
Then, it will be explained how is the foundation of English language education, and the last is
about how to gained a science.
Ontology studied about everything exist in science. It breaks down a field of study into
the very little parts. Ontology is a set of concepts and categories in a subject area or domain
that shows their properties and relationships between them. Basically, ontology focuses on
what things exist, what does something mean, and what categories they belong to. It can be
said that ontology is such a database of knowledge which has two main components; classes
and relationships. It was explained that we are using ontology to captures and analyze the
knowledge in our study field, in this context is, English language education. Ontology answers
the questions of what. “What is the objects of knowledge to be explored?” What is the essential
form of the objects?” and “What is the relationship between the objects with human
comprehension like thinking, feeling, and sensing when produce a knowledge?”. So, it can be
said that ontology helps researchers recognize how conviced they can be about the nature and
existence of objects they are studied.
Then, how to gained a knowledge? Firstly, there is a difference between knowledge and
science. Knowledge is produced through experiences, and it still needs to be justified since
being correct is just not enough. Alexander (2011) stated that philosophy of science needs to
relate its account of scietific belief to the entirely general account of knowledge and
justification provided by epistemology. All knowledge requires some account of reasoning.
However, much of our more knowledge comes from senses, as we look, listen, smell, touch,
and taste the various objects in our environment. Justification used to support the claim and
reduce or remove the doubt. Meanwhile, science needs a process trough scientific research to
be proven. Epistemology is important since it affect how researcher frame their research to
discover knowledge. It investigates the foundation of knowledge, meaning how much can we
know and how deep can we dig into our knowledge. In short, epistemology concerns with the
validity of knowledge.
The last concept is axiology, that is answered the question what for. A general theory
about the constraints that govern rational choice of aims and goals, for example, predictive
success, empirical adequacy, truth (Laudan, 1996). In other words, axiology primarily refers to
the aims of the research. This branch of the research philosophy attempts to clarify if you are
trying to explain or predict the world’s problem or phenomena. Further, axiology contains of
axiom and assumption. An axiom is a self-evident truth which accepted without any
controversy or question. It can’t be proven since it’s logically derived. Next, assumptions,
which are the things accepted as true, or at least plausible. It can be said that assumption is an
idea that is formed without evidence. For example, people might create an assumption that
you’re a nerd if you wear glasses, even though that’s not true.
In addition, it is a must to know and understand the foundation of English language
education field and here is the shape of our field of study. Each field of study has its own object
material and object formal. For instance, in Sociology, the material object is human being and
the formal object is interaction. So, sociology is a study of human being interactions with the
others. Therefore, how about English Language Education? In English language education, the
material object is human being and there are two formal objects which are English language
and learning and teaching. In our field of study, we learn about the learning, teaching, and
assessing processes to gaining knowledge and skills of English language. We explore both
psychology, pedagogy, and linguistics fields to overview human language learning.
Pedagogy, most commonly understood as the approach of teaching, refers more broadly
to the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by the
psychological development of learners. This includes how teachers and students relate together
as well as the instructional approaches implemented in the classroom. Whereas, psychology
can defined as the scientific study of the human mind and behavior. Educational psychology is
part of one of the branches that came out from psychology. In short, psychology-pedagogy
studies specifically related to human learning. Meanwhile, linguistics is the study of language.
It has two main branches, which are, macrolinguistics and microlinguistic. The term
microlinguistics refers to the branches or fields of linguistics which studies language based
only on the language itself; the study of language from internal side of the language (Jufrizal,
1999). Phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics are in the term of microlinguistics.
While in macrolinguistics we are study about sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, semiotics,
and so on. Linguistics involves analysing language form, language meaning, and language in
context. English has four main skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
To teach is to engage students in learning, thus teaching consists of getting students
involved the active construction of knowledge. Teaching is fundamentally about creating the
pedagogical, social, and ethical conditions induvidually and collectively (Cristensen, et al.
1991). The teaching and learning process, including assessing of English language be based on
the curriculum applied in certain school. The general curriculum in Indonesia is K13, which
used the cognitive process from Bloom’s taxonomy; remember, understand, apply, analyze,
evaluate, and create (Anderson, W, et al).
In conducting scientific research, it is important to know first what to be analyzed and
how to analyze in order to deciding the appropriate methodology and methods. Your ontology
dictates your epistemology which dictates your methodology which dictates your methods.
Ontology (what) → epistemology (how) → methodology → methods. The first phase in
conducting a scientific research is make observations to reveal the problem which wants to be
exposed. Through observations, the researcher will get the background of studies with the
theories, hypothesis, and ready for the experimentation. Then, the researcher decided whether
the study using qualitative or quantitative method in order to testing the hypothesis. It also can
be use mixed method. According to Cresswell (2014), mixed methods is chosen because of its
strength of drawing on both qualitative and quantitative research and minimizing the
limitations of both approaches. At a practical level, mixed methods provides a sophisticated,
complex approach to research that appeals to those on the forefront of new research procedures.
Research is quantitative if it returns a numerical data. This kinds of method is more
objective and quantifiable. In a quantitative research, the problem is addressed by
understanding what factors or variables influence an outcome. On the other hand, qualitative
research is conducted without capturing numerical data. Moreover, there are another
differences of qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research focused on quality
(features), the goal of this research is to understand and comprehend or elaborate the meaning
of theory. Then, it used small and purposive sample. The researcher conducts an inductive
analysis. Its findings are comprehensive, descriptive, and detail. Besides, quantitative research
is a experimental or corelation method which focused on quantity. The sample is mostly
random with structured and pre-determined design. While in mixed methods, the problem may
be one in which a need exists to both understand the relationship among variables in a situation
and explore the topic in further depth.
 The result of scientific research is scientific truth or scientific explanation. Scientific
research produces scientific explanation, that is a way of explaining something based on the
observations and measurements. Scientific explanation should be systematized, testable, and
has the ability to predict. The form of scientific research can be a law or a theory. Law and
theory are different, law describe what phenomena occur while theory explain why phenomena
occur. As cited in de Regt (2011), Kitcher (1989) characterized laws as universal premises in
explanatory pattern. It can be said that in law, the latter derives from the former, instead of the
other way around. Theory can be generalized but law just holds for specifics condition. Both
of them can be revised and based on the hypothesis. If it is confirmed, the researcher has
produce a new theory. However, if the result disconfirmed, the researcher should be back to
find a new theory and re-conduct his/her research from the beginning.
References

Anderson, W. L., Krathwohl, D. R., Airasian, W. P.,, Cruickshank, A. K., . . . Wistrock, C. M.

2001. A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A revision of Bloom’s
taxonomy of educational objectives.
Christensen, C. R., Garvin, D. A., Sweet, A. 1991. Education for Judgement: The Artisty of
Discussion Leadership. Harvard Business School: Cambridge.
Cresswell, J. W. 2014. Research Design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
approaches. SAGE Publlication, Inc.
French, S. and Saatsi, J (Ed.). 2011. The Continuum Companion to Philosophy of Science. New
York: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Jufrizal.(1999). Introduction to General Linguistics. Padang: DIP UNP.
Laudan, Larry (1996). Beyond Positivism and Relativism. Boulder: Westview Press.
Stathis, P. 2007. Philosophy of Science A-Z. Edinburgh University Press.