The Nature of Scientific Explanation: Examining the perceptions of the nature, quality, and “goodness” of explanation among college students, science teachers, and scientists

Abstract

Issues regarding scientific explanation have been of interest to philosophers from Pre‐Socratic times. The notion of scientific explanation is of interest not only to philosophers, but also to science educators as is clearly evident in the emphasis given to K‐12 students' construction of explanations in current national science education reform efforts. Nonetheless, there is a dearth of research on conceptualizing explanation in science education. Using a philosophically guided framework—the Nature of Scientific Explanation (NOSE) framework—the study aims to elucidate and compare college freshmen science students', secondary science teachers', and practicing scientists' scientific explanations and their views of scientific explanations. In particular, this study aims to: (1) analyze students', teachers', and scientists' scientific explanations; (2) explore the nuances about how freshman students, science teachers, and practicing scientists construct explanations; and (3) elucidate the criteria that participants use in analyzing scientific explanations. In two separate interviews, participants first constructed explanations of everyday scientific phenomena and then provided feedback on the explanations constructed by other participants. Major findings showed that, when analyzed using NOSE framework, participant scientists did significantly “better” than teachers and students. Our analysis revealed that scientists, teachers, and students share a lot of similarities in how they construct their explanations in science. However, they differ in some key dimensions. The present study highlighted the need articulated by many researchers in science education to understand additional aspects specific to scientific explanation. The present findings provide an initial analytical framework for examining students' and science teachers' scientific explanations.

Preservice Teachers’ Level of Knowledge on Elements and Rationale for Nature of Science: Towards Advancing Quality Instruction

“…Positions in the literature are explored here to aggregate scholarly findings on NOS with respect to why, what and how it is necessary in classroom practices of science teachers. Alameh et al, (2023) researched quality of scientific explanation among scientist, science teachers and college students. Scientific phenomena as explained by the three categories of participant were analysed along the Nature of Scientific Explanations (NOSE).…”

“…Strengthening preservice teachers' knowledge of the Nature of Science (NOS) to achieve a thorough understanding for deliberate and thoughtful integration into their future classroom practices has garnered attention from scholars (Alameh et al, 2023;Alameh et al, 2023). Within the realm of science education, teachers are expected to possess not only content knowledge but also pedagogical expertise to effectively convey scientific principles and processes to students in a genuine and meaningful manner.…”

“…For this goal to be achieved, teacher training and development should be prioritised. Recent studies have provided guidance on NOS integration (Alameh et al, 2023, Alameh andAbd-El-Khalick, 2018;, NOS competencies (Nouri et al, 2021), structural elements of scientific explanations as well as models for teaching NOS and questionings (Allchin, 2017;Khishfe, 2022) to guide science teachers practices. Positions deducible from literature suggest that sizeable attention has been given to teacher development on the job and not teacher training before certification with respect to NOS integration.…”

“…Positions deducible from literature suggest that sizeable attention has been given to teacher development on the job and not teacher training before certification with respect to NOS integration. The study of Vygotsky and Cole, 1978, p. 86) identified convergent, divergent and evaluative questioning in student-centred classroom while Alameh et al, (2023) researched the nature of scientific explanations with emphasis on goodness and quality of explanations by college students, teachers and scientist to emphasize the importance of qualitative scientific explanations. Answers have also been availed in the literature regarding the construction of scientific explanations to suit students' conceptualisation of science (National Research Council [NRC], 2012).…”

Chemistry Teachers’ Level of Scientific Explanation about Change of State and their Beliefs about Scientific Explanation

“…Therefore, it was concluded that the teachers were incapable of making scientific explanations regarding the change of state related to daily life. Reviewing the conducted studies, it is seen that teacher candidate or teachers make incorrect or inadequate explanations in chemistry subjects related to everyday life (Alameh, El-Khalick & Brown, 2022;Boyraz, Hacıoğlu & Aygün, 2016;Saglam, Karaaslan & Ayas, 2014;Uluçınar Sağır, Tekin & Karamustafaoğlu, 2012;Yadigaroglu & Demircioglu, 2012). Most of the studies in the literature point to incorrect explanations or misconceptions of events rather than their scientific explanations (Yakmaci-Güzel, 2013;Yavuz & Büyükekşi, 2016) It is seen in Table 5 that some teachers were given 1 point as they had missing parts in their explanations to the second question of the study.…”