Interpreting experimental data: the views of upper secondary school and university science students

Profiles of freshman physics students' views on the nature of science

“…This is in line with the findings of Vhurumuku et al (2006). In contrast, the outcome of the study by Ryder and Leach (2000) revealed that most of the European students in their sample suggested more weight should be given to experimental data (evidence) for the construction of scientific knowledge. Their study revealed that much emphasis is laid on the quality and quantity of data to prove a system, or on repeating experiments for accuracy and reliability of data.…”

Developing materials to promote inquiry: Lessons learned

“…Their comments emphasized the role that content knowledge plays in data analysis and interpretation. As many have argued (for example, Ryder & Leach, 2000;Stewart & Rudolph, 2001), interpretation of data is not merely a process of applying analytic techniques or rules; rather, the process requires the use of a model or theoretical perspective to frame how one looks at information. Ryder and Leach (2000) state that scientific explanations do not "emerge directly and unproblematically from data" (p. 1069).…”

“…As many have argued (for example, Ryder & Leach, 2000;Stewart & Rudolph, 2001), interpretation of data is not merely a process of applying analytic techniques or rules; rather, the process requires the use of a model or theoretical perspective to frame how one looks at information. Ryder and Leach (2000) state that scientific explanations do not "emerge directly and unproblematically from data" (p. 1069). Further, the assumption that students would use data collected from their schoolyards together with data from other classrooms to develop scientific claims was based on a naive empiricist view in which data are presumed to have meaning in the absence of interpretation (Varelas, 1996).…”

The influence of explicit nature of science and argumentation instruction on preservice primary teachers' views of nature of science

“…A profile of participants' expressed views of NOS in response to the superconductors survey was generated at both the pre-intervention and post-intervention phases of the study. Following the coding scheme developed by Ryder and Leach (2000), participants' responses to each of the three sections of the survey were coded as data focused views, model focused views, or relativist focused views. In this study, participants who exhibited predominantly data focused views across the three sections of the survey represented less desirable understandings of NOS, and participants who exhibited predominantly model focused or relativist focused views across the three sections of the survey represented more desirable understandings of NOS.…”