Exploring the Inclusion of Nature of Science in Biology Curriculum and High-Stakes Assessments in Hong Kong

Abstract

Nature of science (NOS) becomes one of the major emphases in curriculum and assessment. This study explores what and how NOS is included in the Hong Kong biology curriculum and seven-year high-stakes assessments. Although there are different conceptualizations on the definition of NOS, the family resemblance approach (FRA) is used to analyze the inclusion of NOS in the curriculum and the high-stakes assessments. In FRA, NOS comprises a cognitive-epistemic system and a socialinstitutional system. There is a total of 11 categories in these two systems and these categories are interconnected with one another. By adopting Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA), the frequency of connections among these NOS categories in the curriculum and the high-stakes assessments can be visualized and compared. This study reveals three major findings: (1) both the curriculum and the high-stakes assessments neglect the NOS categories in relation to the social-institutional system;(2) the NOS categories included in the curriculum are not aligned with those included in the high-stake examinations; (3) the high-stakes examinations require students to demonstrate their NOS understanding using a limited range of skills in a limited range of contexts. Implications on the design of curriculum and assessment items will be discussed.

Investigating Scientists’ Views of the Family Resemblance Approach to Nature of Science in Science Education

“…The contributions of the FRA in science education have been documented in a recent review . For example, FRA has been applied to teacher education (Kaya et al, 2019), undergraduate teaching and learning (Akgun & Kaya, 2020;Petersen et al, 2020), curriculum analysis (Cheung, 2020;Kaya & Erduran, 2016;Yeh et al, 2019), textbook analysis (McDonald, 2017;Park, Wu, et al, 2020;Park, Yang, et al, 2020), and STEM education (Couso & Simmaro, 2020;Park et al, 2020b). Erduran, Kaya, and Avraamidou (2020) investigated how the FRA framework could be linked to broader curricular goals related to social justice, and the utility of FRA in the enculturation of university students in scientific cultures has been explored (Mohan & Kelly, 2020).…”

“…Although the relevance of the FRA framework for science education has been evidenced in numerous recent studies including those focusing on teacher education (Kaya et al 2019), undergraduate teaching (Petersen et al, 2020), curriculum analysis (Cheung, 2020;Kaya & Erduran, 2016;Yeh et al, 2019), textbook analysis (Bou-Jaoude et al, 2017;McDonald, 2017;Park, Wu, et al, 2020;Park, Yang, et al, 2020), and STEM education (Couso & Simmaro, 2020), scientists' views of FRA have not been investigated. Considering FRA is a relatively new account about NOS, it is worthwhile to ask if its depiction of NOS is coherent with how scientists view NOS.…”

“…Following on from this discussion, closer attention is paid to FRA to frame the empirical study with scientists presented subsequently in the paper. Although the empirical base of research on FRA in science education has been growing (e.g., Cheung, 2020;Erduran & Kaya, 2018;Erduran et al, 2020;McDonald, 2017;Park et al, 2020a;Park et al, 2020b), there is limited understanding of the extent to which FRA coheres with scientists' own depictions about NOS. Hence, an empirical study was conducted with scientists to investigate their views about FRA.…”

Student, Teacher, and Scientist Views of the Scientific Enterprise: An Epistemic Network Re-analysis

“…The FRA framework has garnered support within the science education community (e.g. Cheung, 2020;Couso & Simmaro, 2020;Petersen et al, 2020). For example, FRA has been applied to studies that focused on textbook analysis (e.g.…”

“…Researchers have also investigated how professional scientists themselves understand NOS (Osborne et al, 2003;Schwartz & Lederman, 2008;Tao, 2002;Wu & Erduran, 2022). Studies on students' and teachers' views of science show a range of findings depending on the type and duration of NOS intervention (Cofré et al, 2019), the degree of explicit versus implicit NOS instruction (Adibelli-Sahin, & Deniz, 2017), and the NOS framework used (Cheung, 2020).…”