Teaching the Nature of Science Through the Millikan-Ehrenhaft Dispute

Abstract

This article presents the results of a research project that investigated the extent to which the use of the historical episode of the Millikan-Ehrenhaft dispute over the existence of the elementary electric charge can improve students' conceptions of specific aspects of the Nature of Science (NOS). A teaching programme containing seven hourly teaching units was designed and implemented. The teaching intervention was designed on the basis of an explicit form of teaching that was integrated into the scientific content and through the use of short stories. Students' conceptions of specific aspects of NOS were documented in a questionnaire distributed before and after the class. The results showed that there was a significant statistical improvement in students' conceptions of the aspects of NOS that had been selected for teaching.

Contextualisation of factual knowledge in genetics: A pre- and post- survey of undergraduates’ understanding of the Nature of Science

“…Several studies report the positive effects of instructional units that incorporate historical case studies into teaching about NOS. After these teaching interventions, students' understanding of several NOS aspects showed an improvement (Irwin, 2000;Lin & Chen, 2002;Rudge & Howe, 2009;Paraskevopoulou & Koliopoulos, 2011;Wolfshagen & Canella, 2015). However, McDonald (2017) shows in her analysis of Australian junior secondary textbooks representations of NOS within the topic of genetics that NOS was not sufficiently explicitly addressed in the case studies.…”

Decisões Envolvidas Na Elaboração E Validação De Um Questionário Contextualizado Sobre Concepções De Natureza Da Ciência

“…Collins et al, 2003;Lederman, 2007;Paraskevopoulou & Koliopoulos, 2011) que defendem o uso dos aspectos característicos da ciência mais usualmente aceitos e que valorizem a criticidade que se espera para o Ensino de Ciências. Esses autores ressaltam que listas de aspectos de NdC são úteis para a reflexão sobre a visão de ciência que geralmente se ensina.…”

Um Levantamento Em Larga Escala Das Concepções De Natureza Da Ciência De Graduandos De Biologia Brasileiros E Os Possíveis Elementos Formativos Associados

“…Even though there are variations as to the meaning of NOS (ABD-EL-KHALICK; LEDERMAN, 2000a), there is agreement among some researchers about the main aspects of NOS that are relevant for teaching sciences (MCCOMAS et al, 2002). Among the aspects frequently listed as consensual, those outstanding are (i) the empirical character of science, (ii) the absence of a unique scientific method, (iii) the interdependence between science and society, (iv) the role of creativity and collaboration among scientists for the production of knowledge, (v) the tentative character of science, (vi) the use of empirical evidence and logic, and (vii) the correlations between laws and theories (LEDERMAN, 1992;MCCOMAS et al, 2002;LEDERMAN, 2007;PARASKEVOPOULOU;KOLIOPOULOS, 2011;ABD-EL-KHALICK, 2012). Apart from the apparent unanimity perpetuated by these seven aspects of NOS, there are several others, at least 25 according to the systematic review of Azevedo & Scarpa (2017a), that are related to several sciences, and which are not taken into consideration in the assumed consensual point-of-view.…”