Early elementary (K‐4) teachers' perceptions of the developmental appropriateness, importance, and potential for classroom inclusion of key nature of science aspects

Abstract

National science reform documents recommend several nature of science (NOS) elements to introduce to children early in the science curriculum. A researcher developed questionnaire was used to gather information from a random, national sample about early elementary teachers' perceptions of the developmental appropriateness of 12 NOS aspects for the grade level taught, ratings of the importance of the NOS elements in the K‐4 curriculum, and the teachers' self‐reported introduction of the NOS elements during the school year. Binary logistic regression was used to determine if the teachers' introduction of the NOS aspects could be predicted from their perceptions of developmental appropriateness and importance. At least 90% of teachers identified the inferential, empirical, and creative aspects as developmentally appropriate; over half identified another six NOS aspects as important or very important. At least half of the 377 respondents reported classroom introduction of the inferential, empirical, creative, collaborative, tentative, and cultural NOS elements, as well as the idea that no single step‐by‐step scientific method exists. Developmental appropriateness was a significant predictor of teachers' self‐reported introduction for nine of the 12 NOS, and importance was a significant predictor for all 12 NOS elements. The implications of this study for science education are discussed.

Didactic Handout on Nature of Science: Toward Effective Teaching of Physical Science Curriculum

“…NOS expose the empirical dimension of the knowledge of science through concordant evidence from observation and experimentation of the natural world (Nouri and McComas, 2019). Furthermore, cultural influence has a place in NOS -the society in which science would be practiced must impact the direction of research (Nouri et al, 2021;Sweeney and McComas, 2022). With NOS, scientific theories and laws have different bases for establishment, yet, significant at each instance.…”

“…A number of scholars have provided an empirical basis for classroom integration of NOS positing that learners do not automatically acclimatize with the epistemology of science through formal classroom engagement in the subject matter, rather, a conscious attempt must be made by teachers to establish it in the mind of learners through history and sociocultural perspectives (Akerson et al, 2010;Bell et al, 2000;Schwartz and Lederman, 2002). Proponents of the explicit approach have submitted that, aspects of NOS should be built into classroom activities; however, this is not to say that it should be didactical or directly taught (Nouri et al, 2021;Nouri and McComas, 2019;Sweeney and McComas, 2022). NOS should be reflective -reflect potential structure to guide learners in self-examination of science leaning within agreeable framework (Abd-El-Khalick, 2013;Cansiz, 2019;Maramante, 2018).…”

“…Akerson et al (2019) posited that scientific methods of inquiry, activity/ guide discovery, and discussion methods should afford NOS components in contextualized and decontextualized forms at elementary stage and beyond. Sweeney and McComas (2022) stratified NOS into teachable components of inferential, empirical, creative, collaborative, tentative, and cultural. The authors furthered that there is no single order in terms of scientific method, as such, teachers are expected to be discretionary in terms adaption in their classrooms.…”

“…NOS in science instruction has been reviewed to expose technical rudiments to instructors of science. Investigation was done by Sweeney and McComas (2022) for K-4 science teachers teaching students between the ages of 5-9 years in the United States. The study was informed by the need to introduce children early to science curriculum.…”

“…Some of the debates arising from literature are: What stage should NOS be introduced to the students? -scholars argue for NOS to be taught both implicitly and explicitly at the most elementary stage of schooling (AAAS, 2009;McComas and Clough, 2020;Sweeney and McComas, 2022). What part of NOS should be introduced to the learners?…”