Consideration of the nature of science in a modern physics course

Abstract

The current study examined the effect of considering the nature of science in the classroom on the worldview and knowledge of undergraduate students of physics education. It seems that the historical, cultural, and social situation of physics and physicists during the modern physics period, plus some implicit challenges about the philosophy of science help to promote the worldview and physical knowledge of undergraduate students. So, we sought to determine this issue on experimental and control groups of students during the course of modern physics. They were provided with two types of pre-exam and post-exam sheets followed by an interview. The responses to the exams and the interviews of the students were analyzed qualitatively. It was concluded that simply learning modern physics by the control group did not change their beliefs about science considerably while the experimental group show promotion on their worldview and physical knowledge.