Exploring New Zealand year 11 students' understanding of Nature of Science concepts

10.26686/wgtn.17007670.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Blair Daniel Northcott

Keyword(s):

Science Education ◽

New Zealand ◽

Prior Knowledge ◽

Nature Of Science ◽

Teaching Practices ◽

School Students ◽

Mixed Methods Approach ◽

Knowledge And Beliefs ◽

Core Part ◽

Naive Realist

<p>Nature of Science (NOS) is a core part of science education. Extensive effort has gone into establishing educationally appropriate NOS tenets, teaching practices and assessments tools. However, while previous research has identified the importance of prior knowledge in science education, there is limited research that investigates students’ prior knowledge and beliefs about NOS. This information is critical in identifying what teachers need to target in order develop informed NOS beliefs amongst students. In this study the NOS beliefs of year 11 secondary school students in New Zealand were explored using a mixed methods approach. Factor analysis of the students’ (N=502) NOS questionnaire responses revealed that students’ conceptions of NOS differed from the constructs identified in the NOS literature. Coding of the purposively selected sample of student interviews (n=22) revealed a naïve realist model of science was common. This model along with the alternative constructs provided insights into students’ NOS conceptions. The findings were used to develop a model that could help teachers’ better identify explicit and implicit teaching practices to help students develop more appropriate NOS models.</p>

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Ensino de ciências na aldeia: Uma experiência com alunos da etnia Aikanã sobre as plantas frutíferas da aldeia

Education Policy Analysis Archives ◽

10.14507/epaa.28.4654 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 28 ◽

pp. 155

Author(s):

Luzia Aikanã ◽

Reginaldo Oliveira Nunes ◽

Iuri Cruz Oliveira

Keyword(s):

Science Education ◽

Prior Knowledge ◽

Research Use ◽

School Students ◽

Indigenous Students ◽

Native Land ◽

9Th Grade ◽

Indigenous Groups ◽

The Village ◽

Indigenous Land

Brazilian indigenous groups are looking for ways to rescue their culture, but they often face difficulties within education, and more specifically, science education. The aim of this study was to identify and discuss the perceptions of Aikanã indigenous students about the fruit plants of their native land. The data were obtained through a questionnaire, applied to 6th to 9th grade elementar school students, from the Municipal School Multisseriada Indígena Capitan Aritimon, located in the Gleba Tubarão Village, Tubarão Latundê Indigenous Land. It was observed that these fruits guarantee food sustainability in the village, and are known by the students. Most of the time, however, the fruits are distant from the village, thus making their consumption difficult. Research use in teaching science helps students access a prior knowledge that they already have about these native fruits, and. thus are important tools for teaching and building knowledge.

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Sociocultural Teaching Practices and the Nature of Science: Opportunities for Learning about Science in New Zealand Primary Classrooms

The International Journal of Science Mathematics and Technology Learning ◽

10.18848/2327-7971/cgp/v19i04/58999 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 19 (4) ◽

pp. 39-51

Author(s):

Dayle Anderson

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Nature Of Science ◽

Teaching Practices ◽

Primary Classrooms ◽

Opportunities For Learning

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Beliefs of preschool teacher candidates about the nature of science

African Educational Research Journal ◽

10.30918/aerj.84.20.173 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 774-783

Author(s):

Güzin Özyılmaz ◽

Keyword(s):

Science Education ◽

Nature Of Science ◽

Science Teachers ◽

Teacher Candidates ◽

Preschool Education ◽

Preschool Teacher ◽

Spring Semester ◽

Teachers Beliefs ◽

Aim Of Science ◽

Academic Year

The aim of science education is to enable children to become “science-literate.” Science literacy is defined as taking responsibility for and making decisions about situations requiring scientific understanding and having sufficient knowledge, skills, attitudes and understanding of values to put their decisions into practice. Revealing teachers’ beliefs can help to understand the types of experiences presented by teachers in their classrooms. Inadequate understandings and misbeliefs of teachers shape the first perceptions of children about the NOS when they are formally introduced with science education in their early childhood. Most of the studies were also performed with science teachers and there have been few studies conducted with preschool teachers. Therefore, the present study was directed towards determining NOS beliefs of preschool teacher candidates. To achieve this aim, Nature of Science Beliefs Scale (NOSBS), developed by Özcan and Turgut (2014), was administered to the preschool teacher candidates studying in Preschool Education Department of Buca Education Faculty at Dokuz Eylül University in the spring semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. In the study, the NOS beliefs of the teacher candidates were found to be acceptable in general. While the findings of this study are consistent with those revealed in several relevant studies in the literature

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Changes of Students’Understanding of the Nature of Science After Two and Half Years of Public Science Education in Ontario Canada

Journal of Science Education ◽

10.21796/jse.2014.38.1.57 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 38 (1) ◽

pp. 57-77

Author(s):

박혜란 ◽

Woodruff, Earl

Keyword(s):

Science Education ◽

Nature Of Science ◽

Public Science

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SCREENING HOMES FOR SOURCES OF LEAD EXPOSURE CONDUCTED BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY: COMBINING CITIZEN SCIENCE WITH SCIENCE EDUCATION TO STUDY URBAN GEOCHEMISTRY

10.1130/abs/2018am-319987 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Alexander van Geen ◽

◽

James Gibson ◽

Chaukim Peters ◽

Franziska C. Landes ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

New York ◽

Science Education ◽

High School Students ◽

New Jersey ◽

Citizen Science ◽

Lead Exposure ◽

Urban Geochemistry ◽

School Students

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The Status of the Nature of Science in Science Education in Lebanon

Advances in Nature of Science Research ◽

10.1007/978-94-007-2457-0_6 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 107-122

Author(s):

Saouma BouJaoude ◽

Garine Santourian

Keyword(s):

Science Education ◽

Nature Of Science ◽

The Status

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Exploring Pre-service Science Teachers’ Perspectives on the Nature of Science: A Comparative Study Between China and Canada

ECNU Review of Education ◽

10.1177/2096531120966782 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 209653112096678

Author(s):

Guihua Zhang ◽

Yuanrong Li ◽

George Zhou ◽

Sonia Wai-Ying Ho

Keyword(s):

Teacher Education ◽

Science Education ◽

Science Teacher ◽

Nature Of Science ◽

Science Teachers ◽

Scientific Literacy ◽

Survey Design ◽

Science Teacher Education ◽

Teaching Behaviors ◽

Preservice Science Teachers

Purpose: The Nature of Science (NOS) is an important component of scientific literacy. Science teachers’ Views of the Nature of Science (VNOS) directly affect their teaching behaviors. Therefore, it is of great significance to explore science teachers’ VNOS and find ways of improvement. This study was designed to comparatively investigate preservice science teachers’ VNOS between China and Canada. Design/Approach/Methods: The study employed a survey design to explore how Chinese and Canadian preservice science teachers understood the seven different aspects of NOS. Findings: Data showed that preservice science teachers in China and Canada both hold a modern view about science education. The level of Chinese and Canadian participants’ understanding of NOS was above the relatively naive level. Chinese teachers had better macro-understanding toward science education but their micro-mastery was insufficient. While the Canadian participants had a better understanding of the NOS than their Chinese counterparts. Originality/Value: Based on the research results and the experience of science education and teacher education in Canada, we suggested that there is a need to reconstruct the preservice science teacher education curriculum in China and promote the transformation in the science teacher educational system.

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Usage of Terms “Science” and “Scientific Knowledge” in Nature of Science (NOS): Do Their Lexicons in Different Accounts Indicate Shared Conceptions?

Education Sciences ◽

10.3390/educsci10090252 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (9) ◽

pp. 252

Author(s):

Ismo T. Koponen

Keyword(s):

Science Education ◽

Network Analysis ◽

Nature Of Science ◽

Scientific Knowledge ◽

Social Embeddedness ◽

Focal Points ◽

Central Theme ◽

Network Approach ◽

Basic Vocabulary ◽

Common Understanding

Nature of science (NOS) has been a central theme in science education and research on it for nearly three decades, but there is still debate on its proper focus and underpinnings. The focal points of these debates revolve around different ways of understanding the terms “science” and “scientific knowledge”. It is suggested here that the lack of agreement is at least partially related to and reflected as a lack of common vocabulary and terminology that would provide a shared basis for finding consensus. Consequently, the present study seeks motivation from the notions of centrality of lexicons in recognizing the identity of disciplinary communities and different schools of thought within NOS. Here, by using a network approach, we investigate how lexicons used by different authors to discuss NOS are confluent or divergent. The lexicons used in these texts are investigated on the basis of a network analysis. The results of the analysis reveal clear differences in the lexicons that are partially related to differences in views, as evident from the debates surrounding the consensus NOS. The most divergent views are related to epistemology, while regarding the practices and social embeddedness of science the lexicons overlap significantly. This suggests that, in consensus NOS, one can find much basis for converging views, with common understanding, where constructive communication may be possible. The basic vocabulary, in the form of a lexicon, can reveal much about the different stances and the differences and similarities between various disciplinary schools. The advantage of such an approach is its neutrality and how it keeps a distance from preferred epistemological positions and views of nature of knowledge.

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