Explicit-reflective nature of science (NOS) instruction has demonstrated a positive impact on student learning. Although explicit-reflective NOS instruction often consists of questions that draw ...students’ attention to NOS ideas, there are few recommendations in the science education literature about how the form of these questions might inform NOS educational methods and pedagogy. While some questions in the literature simply point students’ thinking in a general direction, other questions require students to justify particular NOS ideas, or prompt them to choose between two positions. Given that NOS questions often seem to differ in the degree to which they direct student thinking, this study sought to examine the nature of student responses to different question types. Data was collected through writing. Four different versions of a reading were created with questions related to scientific method. Each version included a different question type: three drawn from Gallagher and Aschner’s (
1963
) category system (evaluative, convergent, and divergent), and a general question that did not reference NOS. Readings were randomly distributed to 285 sixth grade students. Responses were analyzed using the provisional codes: normative, descriptive, misconception, off-topic. Using a Chi-squared test of independence and corresponding percentages, clear and statistically significant differences were observed in student responses to different question types. Drawing on the data from this study, convergent questioning seems more suited to the purpose of guiding students to an accurate conception of NOS, while divergent and evaluative NOS questions may make better assessment questions.
During a 10-week professional physical science professional development (PD) course, elementary inservice teachers (
n
= 18) in a large urban district were engaged in explicit-reflective nature of ...science (NOS) instruction. Teachers were also explicitly engaged in reflection concerning NOS pedagogy (e.g., explicit-reflective, role of context). During the last 2 weeks of the PD course, teachers attempted to implement NOS instruction in their classrooms. Teachers submitted videos of their NOS teaching and written reflections about their videos. Then, 7 months later, teacher participants (
n
= 14) submitted videos of their science teaching. During the PD course, most teachers were able to implement effective explicit-reflective NOS instruction and their reflections indicated strong agreement between participants’ NOS pedagogical content knowledge and their enacted NOS instruction. 7 months later, just over one-third of participants continued to include explicit-reflective NOS instruction in their science teaching. NOS views, prior NOS pedagogical views, and prior NOS enactment did not account for longitudinal inclusion of effective NOS instruction. The role of teachers’ rationale for NOS and informal support networks are discussed.
While much is known about teacher learning of nature of science (NOS) concepts, less is known about how teachers develop an understanding of how to effectively teach NOS or how instructional views ...might differ across levels of the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) wheel. Therefore, this study investigated the NOS instructional views related to different levels of the FRA wheel of preservice secondary science teachers as they completed a semester-long NOS course. At four times during the semester, data was collected through written documents and interviews about NOS instructional views. Participant NOS instructional views were evaluated in terms of three aspects of NOS teaching: explicit, reflective, and role of context (McComas et al.,
2020
). In terms of the explicit and reflective components of NOS instruction, participants generally progressed from utilizing inaccurate representations of NOS to inclusion of accurate implicit messages, and finally to explicit reflective instruction often mimicking course activities. As the semester progressed, their questioning also moved toward targeting more specific NOS aspects. As far as the role of context, participants moved from treating NOS as its own topic to a more embedded approach. Other findings include that preservice teachers tended to use more abstract and contextualized activities for social institutional aspects of NOS as opposed to concrete and moderately contextualized activities for cognitive-epistemic NOS. Features of the NOS course may account for some aspects of the learning progressions observed.
In an increasingly complex media environment, science educators must help prepare students to make decisions on science-related issues that are in the best interest of themselves and their ...communities. Researchers have suggested the use of socioscientific issues (SSI) to teach students how to think scientifically and to make good decisions regarding science-related issues. To support students in their learning, growth, and thinking when considering SSI, it is helpful to know how people think about SSI. Understanding the knowledge domains that people draw from when considering SSI will help researchers and teachers support students in their thinking and decision-making regarding SSI. Many studies have looked at how people use individual knowledge domains, but few have looked at multiple knowledge domains in concert. This study investigated the knowledge domains that secondary science teachers use when considering a regional SSI. Participants were interviewed using a think-aloud protocol, in which they read an article about an SSI and were asked to verbalize their thinking about the issue. Findings indicate that participants in our study drew most often from the domains of media literacy and the nature of technology (NOT). We suggest that such domains deserve more attention than they have received in science classrooms if students are to be more fully prepared to engage with SSI.
Many nature of science (NOS) studies have demonstrated that teachers can improve their understandings of NOS with explicit and reflective instruction; however, the field has relied heavily on ...qualitative methods. Because qualitative studies can be difficult to compare across studies and contexts, our study sought to determine if a quantitative instrument, Students’ Understanding of Science and Scientific Inquiry (SUSSI) (Liang et al.,
2008
), could detect differences in NOS understandings that might make large studies and comparisons across studies easier. This study investigated changes in 60 elementary teachers’ NOS views during a year-long extensive science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professional development program designed for elementary teachers. We found four NOS constructs (Social and Cultural, Collaborative, Creative and Imagination, and Scientific Method) out of the eight on the SUSSI had an acceptable Cronbach’s alpha values and we found that quantitative assessment could detect interesting differences in participants’ NOS views from pre- to post-assessment.
While the importance of explicit and reflective NOS instruction is clear in the literature, questions remain about how to enact such instruction. That is, literature is sometimes unclear in defining ...how to enact explicit and reflective NOS instruction. While some authors recommend using questions (e.g., Clough
2007
) to enact effective NOS instruction, we are not aware of NOS literature that meaningfully differentiates between types of questions and, to the extent of our knowledge, no research has been done to compare the effects of question types on student thinking about NOS. To investigate the impact of type of NOS question on student responses, we created four versions of a historical short story and randomly gave 6th grade students (
N
= 161) one of the versions. One version of the story had general reflection questions in which students are repeatedly asked, “What do you notice or want to remember?” A second version contained general NOS questions in which students were repeatedly asked, “What does this say about science and how scientists work?” The third version included specific NOS questions targeting particular NOS ideas. For example, “How do you think science and technology affect each other?” The final version included specific NOS questions with additional preamble to support student responses. For example, “Notice that science is helping develop new clock technology and that new technology is helping science. How do you think science and technology affect each other?” The participants tended to address more NOS ideas when asked specific NOS questions with or without preamble. A significant decrease in the number of NOS ideas addressed was observed for the general NOS questions and students rarely addressed NOS ideas when asked the general reflective questions. Although more specific questions encouraged participants to address more NOS concepts, the responses to more specific questions tended to be normative rather than descriptive. Implications for teaching and teacher education are discussed as well as one strategy that we have used to support teacher creation of specific NOS questions.
While research has investigated elementary teachers' understanding of science content, such research is often limited to topics typically not addressed in elementary school curricula. Yet, research ...has illustrated that many elementary teachers struggle to accurately articulate and teach science concepts and professional development (PD) is needed. Therefore, this qualitative study sought to describe changes in in-service elementary teachers' thinking about matter during a professional development targeting Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) related to matter. Our findings indicate that participants entered the PD holding a wide range of conceptions, including those that were described as vague and inaccurate, as well as a variety of ways to articulate accurate conceptions. After the PD, participants' vague and inaccurate conceptions typically improved to accurate conceptions, but the variety of ways to articulate accurate conceptions often reduced to only the ways discussed in the PD. Implications for teacher education are discussed.
...the inclusion of CT within science teaching may be useful. The following activity combines a Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States 2013) standard with a Computer Science Teaching ...Association (CSTA) standard to help students see interconnections among STEM fields. CT is a tool that will "allow scientists and engineers to collect and analyze large data sets, search for distinctive patterns, and identify relationships and significant features in ways that were previously impossible" (NRC 2012, p. 64). Before getting into the simulation, we take an opportunity to have students reflect on the nature of science (NOS) by asking questions such as: * In the real world we can't hit pause and stop our Slinky in the middle of the air; what factors in the real world make investigating difficult for scientists? * Why would a scientist want to use a simulation instead of physically doing the activity? * What type of simulations would a scientist use? * How would a scientist ensure their simulation is accurate? * Why would a scientist want to be critical of the simulation they are using?
This study explored changes in preservice teachers’ (PSTs) nature of science pedagogical (NOSP) views and nature of science (NOS) rationales using pre- and post-course written responses as well as ...interview data. Through systematic analysis, themes were generated and compared to the NOS literature. Comparisons between pre- and post-course data demonstrate improved and deepened NOS views, NOSP views that are more aligned with NOS literature, and a greater number of rationales for including NOS. All participants were enrolled in the “Inquiry and Natures of Science, Technology, and Engineering” (INSTE) course. However, six participants were enrolled in INSTE as their first course in which NOS and NOSP were addressed. The other six participants were enrolled in INSTE as their second course in which NOS and NOSP were addressed, with science methods as their first course in which NOS and NOSP were addressed. By comparing participants enrolled in INSTE as their first course to those enrolled in INSTE as their second course, we observed that NOS understanding seemed to develop in a first experience alongside some NOS rationales, but NOSP views lagged for participants in INSTE as their first course. Participants enrolled in INSTE as their second course developed more robust and literature-aligned NOSP views and more multifaceted NOS rationales. Therefore, this study bolsters arguments that teachers need to receive extended NOS and NOSP instruction.
