The development of seventh graders' views of nature of science

This study investigated the development in students' nature of science (NOS) views in the context of an explicit inquiry‐oriented instructional approach. Participants were 18 seventh‐grade students who were taught by a teacher with “appropriate” knowledge about NOS. The intervention spanned about 3 months. During this time, students were engaged in three inquiry‐oriented activities that were followed by reflective discussions of NOS. The study emphasized the tentative, empirical, inferential, and creative aspects of NOS. An open‐ended questionnaire, in conjunction with semi‐structured interviews, was used to assess students' views before, during, and after the intervention. Before instruction, the majority of students held naïve views of the four NOS aspects. During instruction, the students acquired more informed and “intermediary” views of the NOS aspects. By the end of the intervention, the students' views of the NOS aspects had developed further still into informed and “intermediary.” These findings suggest a developmental model in which students' views develop along a continuum during which they pass through intermediary views to reach more informed views. Implications for teaching and learning of NOS are discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 470–496, 2008     

Influence of explicit and reflective versus implicit inquiry‐oriented instruction on sixth graders' views of nature of science

This study investigated the influence of an explicit and reflective inquiry‐oriented compared with an implicit inquiry‐oriented instructional approach on sixth graders' understandings of nature of science (NOS). The study emphasized the tentative, empirical, inferential, and imaginative and creative NOS. Participants were 62 sixth‐grade students in two intact groups. The intervention or explicit group was engaged in inquiry activities followed by reflective discussions of the target NOS aspects. The comparison or implicit group was engaged in the same inquiry activities. However, these latter activities included no explicit references to or discussion of any NOS aspects. Engagement time was balanced for both groups. An open‐ended questionnaire in conjunction with semistructured interviews was used to assess participants' NOS views before and at the conclusion of the intervention, which spanned 2.5 months. Before the intervention, the majority of participants in both groups held naive views of the target NOS aspects. The views of the implicit group participants were not different at the conclusion of the study. By comparison, substantially more participants in the explicit group articulated more informed views of one or more of the target NOS aspects. Thus, an explicit and reflective inquiry‐oriented approach was more effective than an implicit inquiry‐oriented approach in promoting participants' NOS conceptions. These results do not support the intuitively appealing assumption that students would automatically learn about NOS through engagement in science‐based inquiry activities. Developing informed conceptions of NOS is a cognitive instructional outcome that requires an explicit and reflective instructional approach. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 551–578, 2002     

Teaching nature of science through inquiry: Results of a 3‐year professional development program

This study assessed the influence of a 3‐year professional development program on elementary teachers' views of nature of science (NOS), instructional practice to promote students' appropriate NOS views, and the influence of participants' instruction on elementary student NOS views. Using the VNOS‐B and associated interviews the researchers tracked the changes in NOS views of teacher participants throughout the professional development program. The teachers participated in explicit–reflective activities, embedded in a program that emphasized scientific inquiry and inquiry‐based instruction, to help them improve their own elementary students' views of NOS. Elementary students were interviewed using the VNOS‐D to track changes in their NOS views, using classroom observations to note teacher influences on student ideas. Analysis of the VNOS‐B and VNOS‐D showed that teachers and most grades of elementary students showed positive changes in their views of NOS. The teachers also improved in their science pedagogy, as evidenced by analysis of their teaching. Implications for teacher professional development programs are made. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 653–680, 2007     

An investigation of Zimbabwe high school chemistry students' laboratory work–based images of the nature of science

This study investigates the proximal and distal images of the nature of science (NOS) that A‐level students develop from their participation in chemistry laboratory work. We also explored the nature of the interactions among the students' proximal and distal images of the NOS and students' participation in laboratory work. Students' views of the NOS and the nature of their chemistry laboratory work were elicited through students' responses to an open‐ended questionnaire and semistructured interviews. The results suggest that students build some understandings of the NOS from their participation in laboratory work. Students' proximal NOS understandings appear to build into and interact with their understandings of the nature and practice of professional science. This interaction appears to be mediated by the nature of instruction. It is posited that each student's conceptual ecological system is replete with interactions, which govern attenuation of proximal understandings into distal images. Methodologically, the study illustrates how students' laboratory work–based proximal and distal images of the NOS can be identified and extracted through analyzing and interpreting their responses to protocols. Implications for A‐level Chemistry instruction and curriculum development are raised. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 127–149, 2006     

Traversing the Divide Between High School Science Students and Sophisticated Nature of Science Understandings: A Multi-pronged Approach

This study investigated the effects of a multi-pronged approach of increasing the nature of science (NOS) understandings of high school science students. The participants consist of 63 high school students: 31 in the intervention group and 32 in the control group. Explicit/reflective NOS instruction was imbedded within authentic inquiry experiences and supported by online discussions. The students in the intervention group were prompted to engage in various discussions focusing on essential tenets of NOS in an online environment that assured student confidentiality. NOS views were assessed through multiple data sources including pre- and post-intervention questionnaires as well as students’ responses to online discussion prompts. Results show that the instructional intervention used in this study which combined explicit/reflective NOS instruction with intense inquiry exposure along with ample reflective opportunities in an anonymous online discussion format led to positive learning gains in participants’ understanding the NOS aspects assessed. Implications for enhancing data collection with high school students and for promising professional development opportunities for science educators are discussed.     

Students' environmental NOS views,compassion, intent,and action: Impact of place‐based socioscientific issues instruction

Preparing students to achieve the lofty goal of functional scientific literacy entails addressing the normative and non‐normative facets of socioscientific issues (SSI) such as scientific processes, the nature of science (NOS) and diverse sociocultural perspectives. SSI instructional approaches have demonstrated some efficacy for promoting students' NOS views, compassion for others, and decision making. However, extant investigations appear to neglect fully engaging students through authentic SSI in several ways. These include: (i) providing SSI instruction through classroom approaches that are divorced from students' lived experiences; (ii) demonstrating a contextual misalignment between SSI and NOS (particularly evident in NOS assessments); and (iii) framing decision making and position taking analogously—with the latter being an unreliable indicator of how people truly act. The significance of the convergent parallel mixed‐methods investigation reported here is how it responds to these shortcomings through exploring how place‐based SSI instruction focused on the contentious environmental issue of wolf reintroduction in the Greater Yellowstone Area impacted sixty secondary students' NOS views, compassion toward those impacted by contentious environmental issues, and pro‐environmental intent. Moreover, this investigation explores how those perspectives associate with the students' pro‐environmental action of donating to a Yellowstone environmental organization. Results demonstrate that the students' NOS views became significantly more accurate and contextualized, with moderate to large effect, through the place‐based SSI instruction. Through that instruction, the students also exhibited significant gains in their compassion for nature and people impacted by contentious environmental issues and pro‐environmental intent. Further analyses showed that donating students developed and demonstrated significantly more robust and contextualized NOS views, compassion for people and nature impacted by contentious environmental issues, and pro‐environmental intent than their nondonating counterparts. Pedagogical implications include how place‐based learning in authentic settings could better prepare students to understand NOS, become socioculturally aware, and engage SSI across a variety of contexts.     

The Influence of Guided Inquiry and Explicit Instruction on K–6 Teachers’ Views of Nature of Science

This study assessed the influence of guided inquiry and explicit reflective instruction on K-6 teachers’ views of nature of science (NOS). Using the Views of Nature of Science Elementary School Version 2 (VNOS-D2), and associated interviews we tracked the changes in NOS views of teacher participants prior to and following a summer professional development program. The teachers participated in guided inquiry to improve physics knowledge, and explicit-reflective NOS activities to improve their views of NOS. Videotaped records of the workshop ensured that explicit reflective NOS instruction took place in conjunction with physics inquiry instruction. Analysis indicated that teachers improved their NOS views by the conclusion of the institute Implications for providing professional development combining inquiry and NOS instruction are made.     

Testing one premise of scientific inquiry in science classrooms: Examining students' scientific explanations and student learning

In this study, we analyzed the quality of students' written scientific explanations found in notebooks and explored the link between the quality of the explanations and students' learning. We propose an approach to systematically analyzing and scoring the quality of students' explanations based on three components: claim, evidence to support it, and a reasoning that justifies the link between the claim and the evidence. We collected students' science notebooks from eight science inquiry‐based middle‐school classrooms in five states. All classrooms implemented the same scientific‐inquiry based curriculum. The study focuses on one of the implemented investigations and the students' explanations that resulted from it. Nine students' notebooks were selected within each classroom. Therefore, a total of 72 students' notebooks were analyzed and scored using the proposed approach. Quality of students' explanations was linked with students' performance in different types of assessments administered as the end‐of‐unit test: multiple‐choice test, predict‐observe‐explain, performance assessment, and a short open‐ended question. Results indicated that: (a) Students' written explanations can be reliably scored with the proposed approach. (b) Constructing explanations were not widely implemented in the classrooms studied despite its significance in the context of inquiry‐based science instruction. (c) Overall, a low percentage of students (18%) provided explanations with the three expected components. The majority of the sample (40%) provided only claims without any supporting data or reasoning. And (d) the magnitude of the correlations between students' quality of explanations and their performance, were all positive but varied in magnitude according to the type of assessment. We concluded that engaging students in the construction of high quality explanations may be related to higher levels of student performance. The opportunities to construct explanations in science‐inquiry based classrooms, however, seem to be limited. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 583–608, 2010     

Influence of a Reflective Explicit Activity‐Based Approach on Elementary Teachers' Conceptions of Nature of Science

This study assessed the influence of a reflective, explicit, activity‐based approach to nature of science (NOS) instruction undertaken in the context of an elementary science methods course on preservice teachers' views of some aspects of NOS. These aspects included the empirical, tentative, subjective (theory‐laden), imaginative and creative, and social and cultural NOS. Two additional aspects were the distinction between observation and inference, and the functions of and relationship between scientific theories and laws. Participants were 25 undergraduate and 25 graduate preservice elementary teachers enrolled in two sections of the investigated course. An open‐ended NOS questionnaire coupled with individual interviews was used to assess participants' NOS views before and at the conclusion of the course. The majority of participants held naive views of the target NOS aspects at the beginning of the study. During the first week of class, participants were engaged in specially designed activities that were coupled with explicit NOS instruction. Throughout the remainder of the course, participants were provided with structured opportunities to reflect on their views of the target NOS aspects. Postinstruction assessments indicated that participants made substantial gains in their views of some of the target NOS aspects. Less substantial gains were evident in the case of the subjective, and social and cultural NOS. The results of the present study support the effectiveness of explicit, reflective NOS instruction. Such instruction, nonetheless, might be rendered more effective when integrated within a conceptual change approach. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 295–317, 2000.     

Teaching nature of science within a controversial topic: Integrated versus nonintegrated

This study investigated the influence of two different explicit instructional approaches in promoting more informed understandings of nature of science (NOS) among students. Participants, a total of 42 students, comprised two groups in two intact sections of ninth grade. Participants in the two groups were taught environmental science by their regular classroom teacher, with the difference being the context in which NOS was explicitly taught. For the “integrated” group, NOS instruction was related to the science content about global warming. For the “nonintegrated” group, NOS was taught through a set of activities that specifically addressed NOS issues and were dispersed across the content about global warming. The treatment for both groups spanned 6 weeks and addressed a unit about global warming and NOS. An open‐ended questionnaire, in conjunction with semistructured interviews, was used to assess students' views before and after instruction. Results showed improvements in participants' views of NOS regardless of whether NOS was integrated within the regular content about global warming. Comparison of differences between the two groups showed “slightly” greater improvement in the informed views of the integrated group participants. On the other hand, there was greater improvement in the transitional views of the nonintegrated group participants. Therefore, the overall results did not provide any conclusive evidence in favor of one approach over the other. Implications on the teaching and learning of NOS are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 395–418, 2006     

Lower track science students' argumentation and open inquiry instruction

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of open inquiry instruction with low achieving, marginalized high school students. Students with long histories of scholastic failure were asked to participate in question generation, experimental design, and argument construction as a part of their General Science course instruction. Videotapes were collected from daily science instruction, and entrance and exit instruction interviews were conducted using identical open‐ended problems. From this dataset, comparisons were made between students' entrance and exit interview responses representing change over time. Shifts in student responses coincided with renegotiated classroom norms for scientific discourse. Results are reported for five students in the form of assertions. Students' arguments were observed to shift toward those more consistent with the nature of the scientific arguments including: (1) students' tentativeness of knowledge claims, (2) students' use of evidence, and (3) students' views regarding the source of scientific authority. Implications are discussed for research and practice in light of the national standards' call for universal scientific literacy. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 807–838, 2000     

Third grade African American students' views of the nature of science

This study examined the nature of science (NOS) views of lower elementary grade level students, including their views of scientists. Participants were 23 third‐grade African American students from two Midwest urban settings. A multiple instrument approach using an open‐ended questionnaire, semi‐structured interviews, a modified version of the traditional Draw‐A‐Scientist Test (DAST), and a simple photo eliciting activity, was employed. The study sought to capture not only the students' views of science and scientists, but also their views of themselves as users and producers of science. The findings suggest that the young African American children in this study hold very distinct and often unique views of what science is and how it operates. Included are traditional stereotypical views of scientists consistent with previous research. Additionally, participants expressed excitement and self‐efficacy in describing their own relationship with science, in and outside of their formal classrooms. Implications for teaching and learning NOS as it relates to young children and children of color are discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 1–37, 2012     

Effect of bead and illustrations models on high school students' achievement in molecular genetics

Our main goal in this study was to explore whether the use of models in molecular genetics instruction in high school can contribute to students' understanding of concepts and processes in genetics. Three comparable groups of 11th and 12th graders participated: The control group (116 students) was taught in the traditional lecture format, while the others received instructions which integrated a bead model (71 students), or an illustration model (71 students). Similar instructions and the same guiding questions accompanied the two models. We used three instruments: a multiple‐choice and an open‐ended written questionnaire, as well as personal interviews. Five of the multiple‐choice questions were also given to students before receiving their genetics instruction (pretest). We found that students who used one of the two types of models improved their knowledge in molecular genetics compared to the control group. However, the open‐ended questions revealed that bead model activity was significantly more effective than illustration activity. On the basis of these findings we conclude that, though it is advisable to use a three‐dimensional model, such as the bead model, engaging students in activities with illustrations can still improve their achievement in comparison to traditional instruction. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 500–529, 2006     

The influence of history of science courses on students' views of nature of science

This study (a) assessed the influence of three history of science (HOS) courses on college students' and preservice science teachers' conceptions of nature of science (NOS), (b) examined whether participants who entered the investigated courses with a conceptual framework consistent with contemporary NOS views achieved more elaborate NOS understandings, and (c) explored the aspects of the participant HOS courses that rendered them more “effective” in influencing students' views. Participants were 166 undergraduate and graduate students and 15 preservice secondary science teachers. An open‐ended questionnaire in conjunction with individual interviews, was used to assess participants' pre‐ and postinstruction NOS views. Almost all participants held inadequate views of several NOS aspects at the outset of the study. Very few and limited changes in participants' views were evident at the conclusion of the courses. Change was evident in the views of relatively more participants, especially preservice science teachers, who entered the HOS courses with frameworks that were somewhat consistent with current NOS views. Moreover, explicitly addressing certain NOS aspects rendered the HOS courses relatively more effective in enhancing participants' NOS views. The results of this study do not lend empirical support to the intuitively appealing assumption held by many science educators that coursework in HOS will necessarily enhance students' and preservice science teachers' NOS views. However, explicitly addressing specific NOS aspects might enhance the effectiveness of HOS courses in this regard. Moreover, the study suggests that exposing preservice science teachers to explicit NOS instruction in science methods courses prior to their enrollment in HOS courses might increase the likelihood that their NOS views will be changed or enriched as a result of their experiences with HOS. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 1057–1095, 2000     

An online adaptive learning environment for critical‐thinking‐infused English literacy instruction

Critical thinking (CT) and English literacy are two essential 21st century competencies that are a priority for teaching and learning in an increasingly digital learning environment. Taking advantage of innovations in educational technology, this study empirically investigates the effectiveness of CT‐infused adaptive English literacy instruction using a Moodle system. A one‐group pretest–posttest design was employed to evaluate the effect of the treatment on students' acquisition of CT skills (CTS) and English literacy. A total of 83 students enrolled in two sections of a general studies course at a large university in Taiwan participated in the semester‐long experiment. Adaptive learning was achieved through the use of an online Moodle system for (1) online grouping (based on pretest English literacy scores), (2) delivery of specifically designed adaptive learning materials for each group and (3) provision of individualised feedback. CT‐infused language activities based on social constructivist principles were designed for each level of adaptive instruction, whereas direct instruction for fostering CTS was provided in class and practiced or reflected upon in groups. Empirical results demonstrate that CT‐enhanced adaptive English literacy instruction simultaneously improved students' CTS and English literacy and that students' online discussions developed towards higher levels of interaction. This paper illustrates an effective blended learning model for adaptive instruction and offers recommendations for designing CT‐infused language learning activities that can successfully foster both CT and English literacy outcomes.     

Teaching nature of science explicitly in a first‐grade internship setting

This case study focused on a preservice teachers' (Morgan) efforts to explicitly emphasize nature of science (NOS) elements in her first‐grade internship classroom. The study assessed the change in first grade students' views of the inferential, tentative, and creative NOS as a result of the explicit instruction. Morgan held appropriate views of NOS, had the intention and motivation to teach NOS, and had a supporting experience explicitly emphasizing NOS embedded in physics content to peer college students. Data sources included weekly classroom observations of explicit NOS science lessons taught by Morgan, interview of Morgan to determine that her views of NOS were informed and that she would have the NOS content knowledge to teach in line with recommended reforms, and interviews of the first‐grade students pre‐ and postinstruction to determine the influence of Morgan's instruction on their views of observation and inference, the tentative NOS, and the creative and imaginative NOS. Data were analyzed to determine (a) the approaches Morgan used to emphasize NOS in her instruction, and (b) students' views of NOS pre‐ and postinstruction to track change in their views. It was found that Morgan was able to explicitly emphasize NOS using three teacher‐designed methods, and that the influence on student views of the inferential, tentative, and creative NOS was positive. Implications for teacher development are provided. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 377–394, 2006     

Learning contexts,black Cultural Ethos,and the science achievement of African American students in an urban middle school

As other countries vigorously promote rapid advancement in science, optimizing the participation of all students in the United States in science is imperative. This study focused on African American students and examined their science achievement in relation to Black Cultural Ethos (BCE), a construct rooted in psychology. Via qualitative and quantitative data obtained from a non‐random control group design, the study addressed three questions: (1) With respect to BCE, what characterizes the natural instructional contexts of two middle school science teachers? (2) What characterizes the achievement of African American students in contexts that incorporate BCE and contexts that do not? (3) What achievement patterns, if any, exist in BCE and non‐BCE instructional contexts? With regard to the natural contexts, the teachers did not incorporate BCE even when the opportunities were available to do so. Within these non‐BCE contexts, the group's mean scores on the study‐specific test that aligned with instruction decreased from pretest to posttest with approximately one‐third of the students' scores improving. When a context was altered with a moderate effect size of 0.47 to include BCE, the group's mean scores on the aforementioned test increased from pretest to posttest with two‐thirds of the students' scores improving. An illustration of the interplay between BCE and context and a consideration of the interplay as a mediating factor in research involving African American students encapsulate the significance and implications of the study's findings. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 665–683, 2008     

Exploring high school students' use of theory and evidence in an everyday context: the role of scientific thinking in environmental science decision‐making

This study examined 10th‐grade students' use of theory and evidence in evaluating a socio‐scientific issue: the use of underground water, after students had received a Science, Technology and Society‐oriented instruction. Forty‐five male and 45 female students from two intact, single‐sex, classes participated in this study. A flow‐map method was used to assess the participants' conceptual knowledge. The reasoning mode was assessed using a questionnaire with open‐ended questions. Results showed that, although some weak to moderate associations were found between conceptual organization in memory and reasoning modes, the students' ability to incorporate theory and evidence was in general inadequate. It was also found that students' reasoning modes were consistent with their epistemological perspectives. Moreover, male and female students appear to have different reasoning approaches.     

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.