Improving students’ NOS understanding through explicit-reflective learning with socio-scientific issues context

Abstract

As part of the scientific literacy component, the nature of science (NOS) contributes to the process of forming students with scientific literacy. This study aims to develop students’ NOS understanding through explicit-reflective learning with socio-scientific issues (SSI) context. The quasi-experimental research method with the non-equivalent pretest-posttest control-group design was used in this study. A total of 45 students in seventh grade from a private junior high school in Prabumulih participated in this study and were grouped into 24 students in experimental class and 21 students in comparison class. Essay questions are used as the instruments in pre- and post-learning to measure students’ understanding five aspects of NOS, which are subjective, tentative, empirical, observation, and social and cultural. The results show that the percentage of students in the experimental class who display an increase in NOS understanding is greater than the students in the comparison class. This study shows that explicit-reflective learning with the SSI context could be used to develop students’ understanding of NOS.