Improving nature of science instruction in elementary classes with modified science trade books and educative curriculum materials

This study investigated the effect of including explicit nature of science (NOS) content in read-alouds of elementary science trade books on the teaching and learning of NOS. We focused on three aspects of NOS: the creative, the empirical, and the inferential NOS. The trade books were read aloud by teachers in three hierarchical levels: Level I served as a control and consisted of a trade book that remained unmodified, Level II consisted of a trade book that had been modified to include explicit references to NOS, and Level III consisted of a modified trade book accompanied by educative curriculum materials that were aimed at improving the teachers' views of NOS as well as supporting teaching about NOS. We used the Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire-form CE (VNOS-CE) preintervention and postintervention to determine changes in teachers' views of NOS and interviews preintervention and postintervention to determine changes in students' views. Audio recordings of read-alouds were used to determine changes in teaching practice, including the frequency and the quality (i.e., naïve or informed) of the NOS references in the discussions. Interviews were used to determine teachers' perceptions of the modified trade books and educative curriculum materials. We found that both teachers and students developed more informed views of the targeted NOS aspects after the intervention and that teachers addressed NOS more often, and in a more informed manner, when they had trade books that explicitly supported NOS instruction and educative curriculum materials that supported their learning about NOS. Furthermore, they perceived the intervention materials favorably. Teachers' views and practices were able to change in tandem because of the intervention materials that supported explicit NOS instruction. We highlight the need for more widespread development of similar educative curriculum materials.     

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ SCIENCE-RELATED IDEAS AS EMBEDDED IN THEIR ENVIRONMENTAL WORLDVIEWS

This study explored environmental worldviews of selected undergraduate students in Taiwan and located the associations of these worldviews with science. The “environment” is represented as nature or the natural world, as opposed to the social and spiritual world. The participants were undergraduate students (14 science and 15 nonscience majors) enrolled in a general science course at a southern Taiwanese university. A questionnaire and individual interviews were conducted in parallel to elicit in depth the students’ ideas/beliefs about nature, such as, to what construes nature, how it works, and how humans relate to nature. The responses were analyzed using a phenomenographic approach to emphasize the qualitative variation of the students’ views. The key findings based on their relations to science and science education were the following: (1) Most students seemed to immediately relate the topic of nature to science and thus sought to explain nature from a scientific perspective, yet their understanding of scientific concepts or metaphors, such as the balance of nature, was problematic; (2) a value-free perspective is evident among some students in viewing human-induced natural crises: What we should do is merely look at facts and let science tell us what we should and should not do. (3) The students generally expressed trust in science and technology and believed it to be the key to improving the condition of nature as well as human life.     

How Nonfiction Reveals the Nature of Science

In this article, the authors consider whether children’s trade books promote an authentic understanding of the nature of science. They begin by discussing the characteristics of the nature of science and then examine existing research in children’s science books for evidence of the visibility of these features. They describe the problems science educators have with literature that constructs what has been called an “architecture of scientific myths.” Instead, the authors suggest using the literature of inquiry, books that promote scientific understanding by developing an authentic context for science. The authors provide an indepth discussion of three exemplary books, each an example of the literature of inquiry. They end with suggestions for explicitly discussing the nature of science in children’s nonfiction.     

Teachers’ Use of Educative Features in Guides for Nature of Science Read-Alouds

Science & Education - This study investigates the use of specific educative features for supporting the teaching of nature of science (NOS) during read-alouds of elementary science trade books....     

Teaching Chemistry for All Its Worth: The Interaction Between Facts,Ideas, and Language in Lavoisier’s and Priestley’s Chemistry Practice: The Case of the Study of the Composition of Air

Both Lavoisier and Priestley were committed to the role of experiment and observation in their chemistry practice. According to Lavoisier the physical sciences embody three important ingredients; facts, ideas, and language, and Priestley would not have disagreed with this. Ideas had to be consistent with the facts generated from experiment and observation and language needed to be precise and reflect the known chemistry of substances. While Priestley was comfortable with a moderate amount of hypothesis making, Lavoisier had no time for what he termed theoretical speculation about the fundamental nature of matter and avoided the use of the atomic hypothesis and Aristotle’s elements in his Elements of Chemistry. In the preface to this famous work he claims he has good educational reasons for this position. While Priestley and Lavoisier used similar kinds of apparatus in their chemistry practice, they came to their task with completely different worldviews as regards the nature of chemical reactivity. This paper examines these worldviews as practiced in the famous experiment on the composition of air and the implications of this for chemistry education are considered.     

The Contribution of Trade Books to Early Science Literacy: In and Out of School

Lifelong science literacy begins with attitudes and interests established early in childhood. The use of trade books (i.e., a literary work intended for sale to the general public) in North American school classrooms to support the development of science literacy invites an examination of the quality of science content disseminated to students. A total of 116 trade books were examined to: (a) determine the degree to which science trade books complement expected science knowledge outcomes outlined in school curricula, and (b) compare trade book content to the goals of scientific literacy. Analysis across four science topics, Dinosaurs, Space, Inheritance, and Growth and Life Properties, revealed that this body of children’s literature is inconsistent in its coverage of curricular goals and elements of scientific literacy. Because trade books represent children’s first exposure to science, these shortcomings should be addressed if these books are to be maximally effective in promoting science literacy. Implications for using trade books in the classroom are discussed.

Prizing children's science information books: the text,reading and the reader

The Royal Society Young People's Book Prize is awarded annually in the United Kingdom for the best science information book, and the winning book is chosen by panels of young people. This article discusses the findings of a study of the responses to the books and to their judging experience of young people who participated on panels in the 2011 Royal Society Young People's Book Prize. Interviews were conducted with 46 young people, aged from 8 to 14 years, from across the United Kingdom. The nature of contemporary non‐fiction books is discussed, specifically science information books. The impact of their design and format on reading is explored, as is the social nature of reading, which was a consequence of the judging panel context. The young people had opinions on the age range for which each book was most suitable, but they generally did so in such a way as to include themselves. It was found that their judging responsibilities contributed to these young people displaying a positive reading identity and sense of self‐efficacy.     

Seeking historical examples to illustrate key aspects of the nature of science

Increasingly widespread agreement exists that the nature of science (NOS) must be an integral element of the K-12 science curriculum with emerging consensus on what specific NOS elements should be the focus of such instruction. In this study reported, eight recent trade books written by NOS experts addressing the nature of science for the general public were examined to locate the historical examples included. These historical vignettes were extracted and analyzed to determine the kinds of examples used and the focus of the science discipline from which the example comes. The analysis has revealed that these authors have collectively provided approximately 80 historical vignettes in fields ranging from astronomy to physics, with some cited repeatedly from one book to another. In addition, the entire set of examples was then linked to important NOS notions providing an instructional resource for use by teachers, textbook writers and curriculum developers.     

Beliefs about the Nature of Science and the Enacted Science Curriculum

This interpretive study of the teaching and learning of chemistry in an Australian high school examines the beliefs about the nature of science of a teacher and his class in relation to the enacted curriculum. Although the teacher and students tended to see science as an evolving discipline that was uncertain and changed over time, the manner in which the curriculum was implemented was a direct contrast. In the enacted curriculum science was represented as a catalogue of facts to be memorised and as algorithmic solutions to problems. The beliefs that had greatest impact on shaping the curriculum were the teachers beliefs about the nature of student learning, his beliefs about the distribution of power between himself and the students, and the extent to which restraints were accepted by the teacher as reasons for maintaining a traditional approach to teaching and learning chemistry.     

“以诗证史”与史事坐实的复杂性——以陈寅恪《元白诗笺证稿》为例

"以诗证史"须从时间、人事、地理上来考察"诗"之史料价值,然"诗"之性质决定了"以诗证史"常常是求普遍史实较易较确,求特殊史实较难易错,一旦过于求深坐实,反而会失真失实."诗"系如此,集部、子部、甚至史实之文献,都程度不同地存在此类情况,此也是史事考实复杂繁难的一个原因.     

Charles Darwin and Evolution: Illustrating Human Aspects of Science

Recently, the nature of science (NOS) has become recognized as an important element within the K-12 science curriculum. Despite differences in the ultimate lists of recommended aspects, a consensus is emerging on what specific NOS elements should be the focus of science instruction and inform textbook writers and curriculum developers. In this article, we suggest a contextualized, explicit approach addressing one core NOS aspect: the human aspects of science that include the domains of creativity, social influences and subjectivity. To illustrate these ideas, we have focused on Charles Darwin, a scientist whose life, work and thought processes were particularly well recorded at the time and analyzed by scholars in the succeeding years. Historical facts are discussed and linked to core NOS ideas. Creativity is illustrated through the analogies between the struggle for existence in human societies and in nature, between artificial and natural selection, and between the division of labor in human societies and in nature. Social influences are represented by Darwin’s aversion of criticism of various kinds and by his response to the methodological requirements of the science of that time. Finally, subjectivity is discussed through Darwin’s development of a unique but incorrect source for the origin of variations within species.     

Mastery,insight, and the teaching of chemistry

The learning of chemistry is described as a process analogous to the process of making chemical discoveries. Historical examples are given to show how chemists have used their insight to break out of a conceptual loop in order to advance the science. Having the insight to make the intuitive leap necessary to break a conceptual loop is as important as having the mastery of the pertinent facts. As in making chemical discoveries, learning elementary chemistry requires developing insight as well as acquiring mastery of the facts. However, current general chemistry teaching tends to teach facts first and insight later. Suggestions for improving this situation so that insight and facts are learned together are given. Finally, the nature of insight is probed more deeply and presented as a two-step process where the first step is an evaluation of the perceptions about science which are held. Once the student, teacher, or researcher has a clear evaluation of the validity of the perceptions that he or she holds, further significant progress toward understanding or scientific discovery is possible.     

Teaching Science Through Pictorial Models During Read-Alouds

This study examines how three elementary teachers refer to pictorial models (photographs, drawings, and cartoons) during science read-alouds. While one teacher used realistic photographs for the purpose of visually verifying facts about crystals, another employed analytical diagrams as heuristic tools to help students visualize complex target systems (rainbow formation and human eye functioning). Another teacher used fictional cartoons to engage students in analogical storytelling, communicating animal camouflage as analogous to human “blending in.” However, teachers did not always explicitly convey the representational nature of pictorial models (analog and target as separate entities). It is argued that teachers need to become more aware of how they refer to pictorial models in children’s science books and how to promote student visual literacy.     

Strengthening science attitudes for newcomer middle school english learners: visually enriched integrated science and language instruction

This study investigated ways to foster positive science attitudes among newcomer first-year middle school English learners (n?=?79) under two conditions: (1) Extended Science?+?Extended Literacy (planetarium-based visualisations?+?vocabulary?+?comic and trade books) and (2) Extended Science?+?Literacy (planetarium-based visualisations?+?vocabulary). The results indicated a statistically and practically meaningful increase in science attitudes (Cohen’s d?=?0.43) after an 8-week science unit delivered under the Extended Science?+?Extended Literacy condition, which was maintained, but not increased, for the second 8-week unit under the Extended Science?+?Literacy condition. These results suggest that the combination of planetarium-based visualisations and comic and trade books can be effective for supporting newcomer ELs’ science attitudes. However, once achieved, this effect may be maintained with less intensive literacy (vocabulary only) support. Student judgments of the quality of the planetarium-based visualisation experiences in terms of clarity, easiness, excitement, and usefulness began high and went even higher with more experiences, Cohen’s d?>?0.50 for three out of four quality indicators. Interviews corroborated these results with teacher and students indicating that they highly valued the visually-rich nature of the program, the variety of learning opportunities within the program, and program continuity/close alignment between science and literacy supports—all components contributing to high levels of engagement and positive attitudes toward science. Ways to adopt program components across settings are discussed.     

Effective Internet Research

For many reasons, students with disabilities are not as thoroughly represented in science careers as are their nondisabled peers. In this case study, the authors explore the effects an informal education program focused on environmental science and delivered to college-bound students with disabilities had on comfort level with science and interest in science careers. Results indicate that the informal nature of the program was well-received and increased individuals' confidence in their science ability. The authors present suggestions for translating this experience into a traditional classroom setting.     

The effect of sequence of instruction on students' cognitive preferences and recall in the context of a problem-oriented method of teaching

This experiment investigated two possible sequences in which biochemical theory and the clinical applications of such theory can be presented to pre-clinical medical students. The dependent variables were the students' cognitive preferences and their ability to recall the contents of the instruction. Seventy-two students were randomly allocated to either a Theory-to-application or an Application-to-theory condition. The results indicated that the Application-to-theory sequence of instruction produced a significantly greater preference for being taught the specific facts of pre-clinical medical science, as opposed to being taught about the clinical applications. However, this was achieved at the expense of a significantly reduced ability to actually recall the theory which was taught.     

Analysis of Nature of Science Included in Recent Popular Writing Using Text Mining Techniques

This study examined the inclusion of nature of science (NOS) in popular science writing to determine whether it could serve supplementary resource for teaching NOS and to evaluate the accuracy of text mining and classification as a viable research tool in science education research. Four groups of documents published from 2001 to 2010 were analyzed: Scientific American, Discover magazine, winners of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, and books from NSTA’s list of Outstanding Science Trade Books. Computer analysis categorized passages in the selected documents based on their inclusions of NOS. Human analysis assessed the frequency, context, coverage, and accuracy of the inclusions of NOS within computer identified NOS passages. NOS was rarely addressed in selected document sets but somewhat more frequently addressed in the letters section of the two magazines. This result suggests that readers seem interested in the discussion of NOS-related themes. In the popular science books analyzed, NOS presentations were found more likely to be aggregated in the beginning and the end of the book, rather than scattered throughout. The most commonly addressed NOS elements in the analyzed documents are science and society and empiricism in science. Only one inaccurate presentation of NOS were identified in all analyzed documents. The text mining technique demonstrated exciting performance, which invites more applications of the technique to analyze other aspects of science textbooks, popular science writing, or other materials involved in science teaching and learning.