Abstract
This study examined changes in students’ attitudes towards the scientific endeavor by exploring the impact of introducing historical stories and rationales into the science curriculum. The stories referred to discoveries by four scientists: Galvani (the discovery of the electrical current), Fleming (the discovery of penicillin), Archimedes (the discovery of the floating principle), and Kekulé (the discovery of the structure of the benzene ring). The participants comprised 542 Arab students from northern Israel between the ages of 12 and 16. Out of the 542 students, 270 studied a curriculum that included historical stories approach (the experimental group), and 272 studied a curriculum without historical stories approach (the control group). A questionnaire was used to examine the students’ attitudes towards the scientific endeavor. The results provide evidence for the view that relating the story behind the discovery significantly improves students’ attitudes towards science in comparison with those who study according to a traditional approach. The students noticed that certain circumstances must be present in order to enable a scientist to make his discovery. The main conclusion is that the scientific curriculum should include adequate scientific subject matter, integrating historical stories in order to encourage students to develop positive attitudes towards and perceptions of science.
Highlights
IntroductionThis traditional approach does not promote students’ active participation in scientific activity because it is based only on results; it engenders unfavorable views of science and alienates students by leading them to believe that only scientists can make discoveries
We learned that students believed that scientists were unique individuals who were not influenced by context, and who were not affected by any outside factors as they performed their research and made their discoveries, which no other scientist could have made
The study showed that when the historical stories approach to teaching science was used, students’ attitude towards the scientific endeavor improved
Summary
This traditional approach does not promote students’ active participation in scientific activity because it is based only on results; it engenders unfavorable views of science and alienates students by leading them to believe that only scientists can make discoveries. Elements of the history of science either are absent or introduced in a fragmentary way Another approach to teaching the sciences exists, despite not being very prevalent in schools: the historical stories approach, which emphasizes the process and the results in teaching scientific content. Students are exposed to scientific facts as well as to the story behind the discovery, and a discussion is held on the way the scientist used his intuition to make the discovery
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