Students' views of the nature of science: A critical review of research

Deng, Feng; Chen, Der‐Thanq; Tsai, Chin‐Chung; Chai, Ching Sing

doi:10.1002/sce.20460

Cited by 238 publications

(157 citation statements)

References 166 publications

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“…This choice of talking to students about their answers to the questionnaire was based on different research in the field of science education about the uses of surveys to gather students' and teachers' views on specific topics, such as NOS (e.g. Driver et al 1996;Lederman et al 2002;Lederman 2007;Deng et al 2011). According to Lederman et al (2002), follow-up interviews can not only help ensure the face validity of the instrument items used in surveys, but also to assess Bthe respondents' reasons for adopting those positions as well^ (Lederman et al 2002, p. 504).…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different People in Different Places

Gandolfi

2018

Sci & Educ

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This article presents the results of an exploratory study of students' knowledge about scientists and countries' contributions to science, aiming at answering two research questions: BIn which ways are students aware of the history of scientific development carried out by different people in different places of the world? What can be influencing and shaping their awareness?^Thus, this study aimed at depicting students' knowledge about History of Science (HOS), focusing on what they know about science being done by people and communities from different parts of the world and on how this knowledge is constructed through their engagement with school science. An exploratory research was carried out at two multicultural state secondary schools in London, UK, involving 200 students aged 12-15 (58.5% girls, 41.5% boys) and five science teachers. The method involved an initial exploration of students' knowledge about HOS through an open-ended survey, followed by classroom-based observations and semi-structured interviews with the participants. Results showed a disconnection between remembering scientists and knowing about their work and background, hinting at an emphasis on illustrative and decontextualised approaches towards HOS. Additionally, there was a lack of diversity in these students' answers in terms of gender and ethnicity when talking about scientists and countries in science. These findings were further analysed in relation to their implications for school science and for the fields of HOS, science education and public perception of science.

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Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different People in Different Places

Gandolfi

2018

Sci & Educ

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“…The literature on beliefs about science not only provides insights in students' and teachers' understandings of NOS (e.g., Brickhouse 1990;Kang et al 2005; see also Deng et al 2011;Lederman 2007) and approaches to teach about NOS (e.g., Akerson et al 2010;Khishfe and Abd-El-Khalick 2002;Lederman and Abd-El-Khalick 1998), but also thoughts about how students' NOS understanding may affect their learning in science. For example, Sadler et al (2004) noted that students' conceptualizations of NOS would influence the manner in which they interpret and evaluate conflicting evidence, thus impacting their scientific reasoning skills.…”

Section: The Role Of Beliefs About Nature Of Science For Science Learmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature of Science and Science Content Learning

Michel

Neumann

2016

Sci & Educ

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Besides viewing knowledge about the nature of science (NOS) as important for its own value with respect to scientific literacy, an adequate understanding of NOS is expected to improve science content learning by fostering the ability to interrelate scientific concepts and, thus, coherently acquire scientific content knowledge. However, there is a lack of systematic investigations, which clarify the relations between NOS and science content learning. In this paper, we present the results of a study, conducted to investigate how NOS understanding relates to students' acquisition of a proper understanding of the concept of energy. A total of 82 sixth and seventh grade students received an instructional unit on energy, with 41 of them receiving generic NOS instruction beforehand. This NOS instruction, however, did not result in students having higher scores on the NOS instrument. Thus, correlational analyses were performed to investigate how students' NOS understanding prior to the energy unit related to their learning about science content. Results show that a more adequate understanding of NOS might relate to students' perspective on the concept of energy and might support them in understanding the nature of energy as a theoretical concept. Students with higher NOS understanding, for example, seemed to be more capable of learning how to relate the different energy forms to each other and to justify why they can be subsumed under the term of energy. Further, we found that NOS understanding may also be related to students' approach toward energy degradation-a concept that can be difficult for students to master-while it does not seem to have a substantive impact on students' learning gain regarding energy forms, transformation, or conservation. Sci & Educ (2016) 25:951-975

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“…Although the term ''scientific literacy'' is not well defined in the literature (Deng et al, 2011, and references therein), Durant (1993) claimed that at its simplest, scientific literacy is ''what the general public ought to know about science,'' (p. 129) while Jenkins (1994) more closely defined scientific literacy as implying ''an appreciation of the nature, aims, and general limitations of science, coupled with some understanding of the more important scientific ideas'' (p. 5345; see also Laugksch, 2000). Alternatively, the American Association for the Advancement of Science defined a scientifically literate person as someone who is familiar with the natural world, understands key concepts and principles of science, has the capacity for scientific reasoning, and is able to use scientific knowledge for personal and social purposes (AAAS Project 2061Jurecki and Wander, 2012).…”

Section: What Is Scientific Literacy?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…No matter the definition or framework for scientific literacy, an understanding of the scientific process is considered a vital component of scientific literacy (e.g., Millar and Osborne, 1998; Abd-El-Khalick and Lederman, 2000;Lederman, 2007;Deng et al, 2011), and Driver et al (1996) stressed the personal and societal benefits of producing students who have sophisticated views of the nature of science. Importantly, Miller (2010aMiller ( , 2010bMiller ( , 2012 has clearly shown that exposure to college science courses is a strong predictor of civic scientific literacy in adults of all ages, so it is likely that all students who complete an introductory geoscience course will become more scientifically literate, regardless of pedagogy.…”

Section: What Is Scientific Literacy?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although there is debate about what the ''nature of science'' should be (e.g., National Science Teachers Association, 1982;AAAS, 1993;NRC, 1996;Deng et al, 2011), there is some consensus about the nature of science among science educators (Deng et al, 2011), which is summarized by Lederman (2007). Lederman (2007) proposes that scientific knowledge: (1) is subject to change; (2) is based on or derived from observations of the natural world; (3) is subjective; (4) involves human imagination, inference, and creativity; and (5) is socially and culturally embedded.…”

Section: The Scientific Process and The Nature Of Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

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Developing Scientific Literacy in Introductory Laboratory Courses: A Model for Course Design and Assessment

Surpless

Bushey

Halx³

2014

Journal of Geoscience Education

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Although science educators at all levels have focused on teaching students scientific literacy for nearly five decades, studies indicate that the average student remains far from scientifically literate. To address this issue at the local level, faculty at Trinity University, in San Antonio, Texas, significantly revised the curriculum of an existing introductory physical geology laboratory course. The course, which satisfies general education requirements at Trinity, was revised to provide students learning opportunities in a scientific process context as part of a new science literacy initiative. This effort was spurred by general dissatisfaction with the existing curricular structure of the course as well as a new interdisciplinary, National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded initiative to support the integration of research-grade instrumentation in curricula and undergraduate research across campus. The physical geology laboratory course revision was based on research that demonstrated the efficacy of learning through active participation, interpretation, iteration, and reflection, especially when knowledge and skills are gained within an explicit scientific process context. In addition to significantly revising laboratory activities, we added new activities within the course framework that involved the use of two new, NSF-funded instruments, including a handheld X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF) and an inductively coupled plasma-optical emissions spectrometer (ICP-OES), which we used to improve student understanding of qualitative and quantitative elemental analyses. Finally, we introduced the use of a new course reader that provided both background materials for each activity as well as a new focus on providing a scientific process context for students. To assess student learning, we used in-class observations, student-instructor discussions, pre-and postlearning questionnaires, prelaboratory quizzes, course activities completed during class time, modified postactivity reflection questions, practical examinations, and a final examination. We also included faculty, staff, and administrator perspectives to qualitatively assess the impact of course changes upon student learning. Our results imply that students achieved the primary learning goals we developed for this scientific literacy initiative, including: (1) improved understanding of the scientific process and the nature of science; (2) improved understanding of qualitative and quantitative elemental research methods; and (3) improved understanding of the applicability of scientific research to real-world problems. Importantly, our findings suggest that the integration of research-grade instrumentation into introductory coursework, in a scientific process context, is an effective way to promote scientific literacy as well as to provide opportunities for students to understand and apply the knowledge and skills necessary to perform scientific research. We believe that this example of a significant course redesign provides a model that can be trans...

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Students' views of the nature of science: A critical review of research

Cited by 238 publications

References 166 publications

Different People in Different Places

Different People in Different Places

Nature of Science and Science Content Learning

Developing Scientific Literacy in Introductory Laboratory Courses: A Model for Course Design and Assessment

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