Effect of Summer Science Camp on Turkish Gifted Students’ Views of Nature of Science

Abstract

This study examines the effect of a summer science camp involved in explicit-reflective Nature of Science (NOS) instruction on Turkish gifted students’ views of NOS. During the teaching intervention, six experienced faculties and two teachers taught six explicit-reflective NOS activities (90 minutes per day through a seven-day period) to 30 gifted students drawn from three Science and Art Centers (SACs). An open-ended Views of NOS Questionnaire was used to assess the students’ NOS views before and after the summer science camp. The pre-test results showed that nearly half of the participants fell into either the informed level or the transitional level of the NOS. After the teaching intervention, findings revealed that the number of students, who held naïve views of empirical, creative and imaginative aspects reduced, and the students improved to the transitional view, not informed one. In addition, a few students’ views of the tentative aspect in the NOS changed from naïve and transitional views into informed ones. These slight improvements in the views are likely due to the gifted students’ pre-existing knowledge of the NOS and supplying comprehensive instruction and training through limited time. A residential summer science program is recommended to overcome the encountered pitfalls and to educate the Turkish gifted students.