Science: How Do We Know What We Know? By Guy Meilleur
Standing on its dripline with a clipboard or a tablet, we cannot understand the tree. Surfing the internet, we don’t know all there is to know about a tree care practice. Science (literally “knowing”) is the “observation, identification, description, investigation, and explanation of natural phenomena…an activity that requires study and method. Knowledge gained through experience…Scientific means having an exact, objective, factual, systematic, or methodological basis.” Scattered impressions do not form knowledge. There must be a method for us to know what we know. What’s called “the scientific method” favors controlled experimentation to answer big questions about physical phenomena, like “Why did that apple fall on my head?” Based on Galileo’s experiments rolling different sized balls, Isaac Newton mathematically proved that the same law of gravity governs the movement of apples, the moon, the planets, and all those other lights in the sky. Little did he know that, on that very same moon, astronaut David Scott would confirm that Law by dropping a hammer and a feather. They hit the ground at the same time. Questions about natural phenomena, like “Can we make big old trees safer and healthier by pruning?” have not been answered with controlled experiments. Too many variables, years, and dollars would be involved. But that question can be answered by systematically pruning, and then methodically observing, describing, and explaining the tree response. Once the results are in, how are they processed so a reader can consider that scientific knowledge? The work must be reviewed by other experts in the field, known as peers. Peer review can improve the quality of submittals, add credibility, and maintain standards of quality in any profession. Understanding the various ways that peers review different subjects, the standards to which studies and articles are held, and the methods they follow, can provide confidence that what we are reading is reliable, useful, scientific knowledge. Following are some peer review processes that are recognized and utilized in a variety of industries. Medical peer review can truly be a matter of life or death so, it is considered first. A medical peer review process was detailed in the Practical Ethics of the Physician written by Ishāq ibn 'Alī al-Ruhāwī (854–931). Al-Ruhawi synthesized historical study and practice, drawing from the Greek Hippocrates and the Roman Galen, among many others. That process started with physicians methodically documenting the patient's condition, and every treatment. The notes were then examined by a local medical council and compared to existing standards of medical care. If the patient died, woe them who fell short of those standards! If the patient was cured, that experience could inform an improvement of those standards. Today, this clinical peer review applies to different disciplines, so there is physician peer review, nursing peer review, etc. Educational peer review achieves learning objectives, reaching for higher order processes in three domains: knowledge, emotion, and action. Like doctors and nurses working together, these domains must interact for successful outcomes. Educational peer review can be an isolated process with an end product, as in science and medicine. It can also be a collaborative teaching tool that helps students improve through collaboration.
American Society of Consulting Arborists®
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Arboricultural Consultant volume 58 issue 3 2025