To FRA or not to FRA: what is the question for science education?

Nine years after reconceptualizing the nature of science for science education using the family resemblance approach (FRA) (Erduran & Dagher, 2014a), the time is ripe for taking stock of what this approach has accomplished, and what future research it can facilitate. This reflective paper aims to accomplish three goals. The first addresses several questions related to the FRA for the purpose of ensuring that the applications of FRA in science education are based on robust understanding of the framework. The second discusses the significance of the FRA by highlighting its capacity to support science educators with the exploration of a wide range of contemporary issues that are relevant to how teachers and learners perceive and experience science. The third goal of the paper offers recommendations for future directions in FRA research in the areas of science identity development and multicultural education as well as curriculum, instruction, and assessment in science education

Abandoning patchwork approaches to nature of science in science education

The purpose of this commentary on Hodson and Wong’s paper is to clarify the merits of the Expanded Family Resemblance Approach to science education, briefly alluded to in their paper, and to discuss the implications of this approach relative to the question of demarcation they raise in their paper. In clarifying the merits of the expanded FRA, we describe its distinct features and how it relates to other approaches presented in their paper. We discuss some limitations pertaining to their discussion of the demarcation problem in science education, and conclude by pointing out the promising role an FRA approach might play in providing means for distinguishing more from less scientific fields of inquiry

Abandoning patchwork approaches to nature of science in science education

The purpose of this commentary on Hodson and Wong’s paper is to clarify the merits of the Expanded Family Resemblance Approach to science education, briefly alluded to in their paper, and to discuss the implications of this approach relative to the question of demarcation they raise in their paper. In clarifying the merits of the expanded FRA, we describe its distinct features and how it relates to other approaches presented in their paper. We discuss some limitations pertaining to their discussion of the demarcation problem in science education, and conclude by pointing out the promising role an FRA approach might play in providing means for distinguishing more from less scientific fields of inquiry