ABSTRACT
Relatively little is known about the skills that practicing scientists actually use. This lack of knowledge makes the design of science curricula rather difficult. How can we train students to be scientists if we do not know what it means to be a scientist? In this chapter, we ask two central questions about the nature of expertise in science: 1) Are there general skills that scientists from different domains share?, and 2) If there are any general skills, are these skills just ones that any intelligent adult would have, or are they the result of training and practice in scientific activities? To answer these questions, we present a study of expert research psychologists working on a scientific discovery problem taken from psychology. Then we turn to a more practical question: 3) If there are general skills not possessed by average intelligent adults, are they being covered in undergraduate education? As a preliminary answer to this question, we present an evaluation of several research methods courses in psychology at one university.
