언어 네트워크 분석법을 통한 중학교 과학영재들의 사실, 가설, 이론, 법칙과 과학적인 것의 의미에 대한 인식 조사

Abstract

The importance of teaching the nature of science (NOS) has been emphasized in the science curriculum, especially in the science curriculum for science-gifted students. Nevertheless, few studies concerning the structure and formation of students` mental model on NOS have been carried out. This study aimed to explore science-gifted students` understanding of `fact`, `hypothesis`, `theory`, `law`, and `scientificness` by utilizing semantic network analysis. One hundred ten science-gifted middle school students who were selected by a national university participated in this study. We collected students` written responses of five items and analyzed them by the semantic network analysis(SNA) method. As a result, the core ideas of students` understanding of `fact` were proof and reality, of `hypothesis` were tentativeness and uncertainty, of `theory` was proven hypothesis by experimentation, of `law` were absoluteness and authority, and of `scientificness` were factual evidence, verifiability, accurate and logical theoretical framework. The result of integrated semantic network illustrated that the viewpoint of science-gifted students were similar to absolutism and logical positivism (empiricism). Methodologically, this study showed that the semantic network analysis method was an useful tool for visualization of students` mental model of scientific conceptions including NOS.