Lebanese students' views of the nature of science

This study aimed to elucidate Lebanese middle school students’ definitions of science and perceptions of its purpose and usage. Participants were 80 grade 7 and grade 8 students randomly selected from four schools in Beirut, Lebanon. Students filled an open-ended questionnaire and participated in followup semi-structured interviews that aimed to generate in-depth profiles of their views of the target aspects of nature of science (NOS). Participants’ science teachers and school administrators were also interviewed regarding their views of the same aspects. An iterative process consistent with analytic induction was used to analyze the data and generate themes and categories that were representative of participants’ views. Additionally, statistical analyses were conducted to assess whether participants’ views were related to background and academic variables. Results indicated that the greater majority of participants held rather restricted views of science: they defined science as an academic subject that ‘furnishes information about the world,’ perceived its purpose as preparation for higher studies and careers, and mostly saw themselves and others using science in academic—rather than everyday life, settings. Student views were related to their socioeconomic status and type of school (public versus private). Participant science teachers and school administrators held equally restricted views of science. The views held by participants and their teachers are at odds with, and might hinder the attainment of, currently advocated goals for science education, which mainly aim to help students internalize more informed views of NOS as a process and a way of generating valid knowledge about the natural world that is relevant to students’ everyday personal and social, as well as academic, lives.peer-reviewe

Evidence and rationale for expanding The Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire

In an attempt to understand nature of science (NOS) conceptions held by learners in greater detail, researchers have steadily become more reliant on open-ended measures. The Views of Science Questionnaire (VNOS) is the most frequently used open-ended instrument. Conceptually grounded in many of the same aspects emphasized in the Next Generation Science Standards, the VNOS-C is appropriate for capturing the views of secondary school students and adults along 10 dimensions related to NOS. However, it has been observed that the 10-item VNOS-C seems to have difficulty uncovering some particular NOS aspects, or rather respondents may need additional prompting. Two new items have been developed and administered to expand the VNOS instrument (VNOS-CE). The present study focuses on evaluating whether these items function as intended, soliciting responses for the target NOS aspects, and whether these contributions add value to the instrument as a whole. Data comes from 37 pre- and in-service elementary, middle and secondary teachers. Results suggest one of the items adds considerable breadth, eliciting responses from multiple NOS aspects, while the other adds much needed depth related to one aspect, social NOS. Implications for the field and assessment of NOS are discussed

The influence of history of science courses on students' conceptions of the nature of science

This study assessed the influence of three history of science (HOS) courses on college students and preservice science teachers' conceptions of the nature of science (NOS), and examined whether participants who entered the investigated HOS courses with a conceptual framework consistent with current NOS views achieved more elaborate NOS understandings. The study also explored the aspects of the participant HOS courses that may have rendered them more effective in influencing students' conceptions. Participants were 141 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in three HOS courses and 15 preservice science teachers enrolled in a science methods course in a mid-sized state university on the West Coast. Ten of the preservice teachers were enrolled in one of the participant HOS courses. An open-ended questionnaire was used to assess participants' pre- and post-instruction NOS views. Individual interviews were used to establish the questionnaire's validity. Twenty percent of the participants were randomly selected for the pre-instruction interviews and an equal percentage were interviewed at the end of the study. Other data sources included field notes, lecture audiotapes, and interviews with the HOS course professors. Almost all participants held inadequate views of several NOS aspects. Very few and limited changes were evident in participants' NOS views at the conclusion of the study. 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 participant 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 the HOS would necessarily enhance students and preservice science teachers' NOS views. Explicitly addressing specific NOS aspects might enhance the effectiveness of HOS courses in influencing students' views. 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 would be changed or enriched as a result of their experiences with HOS

Comparing Likert Scale Functionality Across Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Groups in Science Education Research: an Illustration Using Qatari Students’ Responses to an Attitude Toward Science Survey

Surveying is a common methodology in science education research, including cross-national and cross-cultural comparisons. The literature surrounding students’ attitudes toward science, in particular, illustrates the prevalence of efforts to translate instruments with the eventual goal of comparing groups. This paper utilizes survey data from a nationally representative cross-sectional study of Qatari students in grades 3 through 12 to frame a discussion around the adequacy and extent to which common adaptations allow comparisons to be made among linguistically or culturally different respondents. The analytic sample contained 2,615 students who responded to a previously validated 32-item instrument, 1,704 of whom completed the survey in Modern Standard Arabic and 911 in English. The purpose of using these data is to scrutinize variation in the performance of the instrument between groups of respondents as determined by language of survey completion and cultural heritage. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was employed to investigate issues of validity associated with the performance of the survey with each group, and to evaluate the appropriateness of using this instrument to make simultaneous comparisons across the distinct groups. Findings underscore the limitations of group comparability that may persist even when issues of translation and adaptation were heavily attended to during instrument development

Constructivism: Defense or a Continual Critical Appraisal – A Response to Gil-Pérez et al.

Abstract. This commentary is a critical appraisal of Gil-Pérez et al.’s (2002) conceptualization of constructivism. It is argued that the following aspects of their presentation are problematic: (a) Although the role of controversy is recognized, the authors implicitly subscribe to a Kuhnian perspective of ‘normal’ science; (b) Authors fail to recognize the importance of von Glasersfeld’s contribution to the understanding of constructivism in science education; (c) The fact that it is not possible to implement a constructivist pedagogy without a constructivist epistemology has been ignored; and (d) Failure to recognize that the metaphor of the ‘student as a developing scientist’ facilitates teaching strategies as students are confronted with alternative/rival/conflicting ideas. Finally, we have shown that constructivism in science education is going through a process of continual critical appraisals

Teaching with and about nature of science, and science teacher knowledge domains.Science & Education.Springer

Abstract The ubiquitous goals of helping precollege students develop informed conceptions of nature of science (NOS) and experience inquiry learning environments that progressively approximate authentic scientific practice have been long-standing and central aims of science education reforms around the globe. However, the realization of these goals continues to elude the science education community partly because of a persistent, albeit not empirically supported, coupling of the two goals in the form of 'teaching about NOS with inquiry'. In this context, the present paper aims, first, to introduce the notions of, and articulate the distinction between, teaching with and about NOS, which will allow for the meaningful coupling of the two desired goals. Second, the paper aims to explicate science teachers' knowledge domains requisite for effective teaching with and about NOS. The paper argues that research and development efforts dedicated to helping science teachers develop deep, robust, and integrated NOS understandings would have the dual benefits of not only enabling teachers to convey to students images of science and scientific practice that are commensurate with historical, philosophical, sociological, and psychological scholarship (teaching about NOS), but also to structure robust inquiry learning environments that approximate authentic scientific practice, and implement effective pedagogical approaches that share a lot of the characteristics of best science teaching practices (teaching with NOS)

Inquiry in Science Education: International Perspectives

[[abstract]]This paper set emerged from an international symposium that aimed to shed light on issues associated with the enactment of inquiry both as means (i.e., inquiry as an instructional approach) and as ends (i.e., inquiry as a learning outcome) in precollege science classrooms. The symposium contributors were charged with providing perspectives from their countries on the following major themes: (a) philosophical and practical conceptions of inquiry in the science curriculum; (b) images of the enactment of inquiry in the curriculum, curricular materials, classroom instruction, and assessment practices; and (c) factors and conditions, internal and external to the educational setting, which facilitate or impede inquiry-based science education. Another major theme that emerged from the symposium was related to the very conceptions of inquiry teaching. The individual contributions and synthesizing commentaries demonstrate that despite their situatedness and diversity, many themes and issues cut across the represented locales, and serve to show the significance and potential fruitfulness of any discourse regarding inquiry in science education that this paper set might, and we hope will, trigger in the near future

Constructivism: Defense or a Continual Critical Appraisal – A Response to Gil-Pérez et al.

Abstract. This commentary is a critical appraisal of Gil-Pérez et al.’s (2002) conceptualization of constructivism. It is argued that the following aspects of their presentation are problematic: (a) Although the role of controversy is recognized, the authors implicitly subscribe to a Kuhnian perspective of ‘normal’ science; (b) Authors fail to recognize the importance of von Glasersfeld’s contribution to the understanding of constructivism in science education; (c) The fact that it is not possible to implement a constructivist pedagogy without a constructivist epistemology has been ignored; and (d) Failure to recognize that the metaphor of the ‘student as a developing scientist’ facilitates teaching strategies as students are confronted with alternative/rival/conflicting ideas. Finally, we have shown that constructivism in science education is going through a process of continual critical appraisals