This study sought to discover what aspects of the nature of science (NOS) should be emphasized to nurture great scientists. To this end, educational practices in the Sommerfeld school, regarded as highly successful in scientist education, were analyzed and compared with past and present educational practices. Sommerfeld school’s educational practices include lecture, seminar, colloquium, seminary, and out-of-class education. Common features of the educational practices include (1) open-mindedness based on pleasant relationships, (2) challenging and specific problem-centered learning, (3) intellectual coherence of various topics, and (4) pursuit of shared opinions about problems. Furthermore, explicitly or implicitly, several aspects of NOS—tentativeness, empirical nature, theory-ladenness, creativity, and social dimension—relate to these features. Comparison with other scientist education reveals that the culture of social consensus based on criticism might have contributed significantly to Sommerfeld school’s educational success. Study results imply that science professors should work to improve an understanding of social consensus based on criticism.

这项研究旨在发现应该强调科学本质 (NOS) 的哪些方面来培养伟大的科学家。为此，对被认为在科学家教育方面非常成功的 Sommerfeld 学校的教育实践进行了分析，并与过去和现在的教育实践进行了比较。Sommerfeld 学校的教育实践包括讲座、研讨会、座谈会、神学院和课外教育。教育实践的共同特征包括（1）基于愉快关系的开放态度，（2）具有挑战性和以特定问题为中心的学习，（3）各种主题的智力连贯性，以及（4）对问题的共同看法。此外，明确或隐含地，NOS 的几个方面——试探性、经验性质、理论负载、创造力和社会维度——与这些特征有关。与其他科学家教育的比较表明，基于批评的社会共识文化可能对索末菲学校的教育成功做出了重大贡献。研究结果意味着科学教授应该努力提高对基于批评的社会共识的理解。