Nature of Science in Norway’s Recent Curricula Reform

Abstract

Developing students’ understanding of the nature of science (NOS) is seen as critical for educating scientifically literate citizens, and has emerged as an important curricular goal internationally. In Norway, a new curriculum reform has recently been implemented, intended to improve the Norwegian education in several ways. The reform aims to promote deep learning, and there has been an increased focus on twenty-first-century skills, including critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration. The purpose of this study is to analyse the coverage of various NOS aspects in the new national curriculum for biology, chemistry, and physics, year 12 and 13. The curricula were analysed deductively, using the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) to identify and categorise different NOS aspects, providing insight into how NOS is addressed. Findings include that NOS aspects from the cognitive-epistemic system of the FRA framework—aims and values, methods, practices, and knowledge—are predominant in all three curricula, whereas aspects concerning how science interacts with society are scarce. The exception is several occurrences of the aspect social values, i.e. the need for responsible interaction between science, society, and nature, especially in the biology curriculum. Furthermore, different NOS aspects are found in different parts of the curriculum, e.g. practices are found in the basic skills sections more than in the competence aims sections. Findings are discussed in terms of how the new curriculum reform can promote Norwegian students’ learning of NOS.