Advanced Science Students’ Understandings on Nature of Science in Finland

Kari Sormunen,Mustafa Serdar Köksal

doi:10.12973/eu-jer.3.4.167

Abstract

<p style="text-align:justify">Majority of NOS studies comprise of determination or assessment studies conducted with ordinary students. In order to gain further understanding on variation in NOS understandings among the students, there should be different research attempts focusing on unconventional students such as academically advanced students. The purpose of this study is to determine epistemological understanding of Finnish academically advanced science students concerning aspects of NOS. The study was a case study (N=39) conducted with qualitative perspective. Questionnaires on the students’ attitude toward science and motivation toward science learning plus a form for the teacher’s ideas and VNOS-C, were used as diagnostic tools and data collection instruments. The study revealed that the majority of the students were found to be naïve in aspects such as “empirical basis of science”, “observation and inference”, “subjectivity of scientists”, “social and cultural embeddedness”, “creativity in science”, “theories and laws” and “tentativeness”.</p>

Highlights

Scientific literacy is among the major purposes of science education researchers and science teachers to teach science to all citizens
Importance of scientific literacy is related to its role in decision making in daily life, making informed choices on socio-scientific issues, having advanced knowledge about science and its products (Damastes & Wandersee, 1992; Klymkowsky, Garwin-Doxas & Zeilik, 2003; Uno & Bybee, 1994)
nature of science (NOS) refers to the epistemology and sociology of science, science as a way of knowing, or the values and beliefs inherent to scientific knowledge and its development (Lederman, 1992, p.331)

Summary

Introduction

Scientific literacy is among the major purposes of science education researchers and science teachers to teach science to all citizens. This tendency on scientific literacy is seen in current curriculum studies and international examination frameworks (Project 2061, 2007; OECD, 2003). 168 Sormunen & Köksal do science” are accepted as fundamental to give meaning to other aspects of NOS. Another aspect is that scientific knowledge is not fixed, so it is tentative since it is based on evidence and observation which are driven by individuals’ educational background and interests. Theories are not lower-order knowledge than laws, there is no hierarchy among hypothesis, theory and law and, laws and theories are different knowledge types and have different roles in science (McComas, 1998, Lederman, Abd-El-Khalick, Bell, and Schwartz, 2002)

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