The purpose of this study was to investigate physical science students' conceptions of the nature of science. The findings of this study showed that students have mixed ideas about the nature of science.
DEDICATION
INTRODUCTION TO STUDY
- IMPLEMENTATION OF CURRICULUM 2005
- THE STUDY
- NATURE OF SCIENCE: MAIN CONCEPTS
- THE STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY
Teachers were required to teach current understandings of the nature of science, infused with indigenous knowledge. The aim of this study was to explore Year 10 students' views on the nature of science.
LITERATURE REVIEW
NATURE OF SCIENCE
Accordingly, members of the scientific community subscribe to different philosophies and hold different views on the nature of science. Different philosophies of science have given rise to different conceptions of science within the scientific community.
SCIENCE EDUCATION
Understanding the nature of science has historically been associated with the goals of scientific methods and personal social. Current conceptions of the nature of science are embedded (Mnisi & Dekkers, 2003) in all three learning outcomes - scientific investigations, the building up of scientific knowledge and, science, society and the environment, of the Natural Sciences curriculum (Department of Education, 2002b ).
A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE LITERATURE
The scientific community believes that these challenges can be met by understanding the nature of science. Consequently, helping students develop adequate understanding of the nature of science has recently been reemphasized in major reform efforts in science education. It recognizes that students develop many concepts about the scientific world during their life experiences and these concepts have consequences in the course of the development of science teaching.
A framework of analysis based on three strands: the nature of scientific knowledge, the nature of scientific inquiry and the relationship between science and society revealed that the new South African science curriculum reflects contemporary views in the scientific community. The traditional South African curriculum focused on the development of science concepts, but the nature of science was a hoped-for goal. However, C2005 explicitly addresses this shortcoming by including the nature of science as one of its three outcomes.
WHY THIS STUDY CONTRIBUTES TO NATURE OF SCIENCE RESEARCH
The findings can be used by South African science teachers to consciously plan and implement teaching to enable students to develop understandings consistent with contemporary views of the nature of science. This study was conducted using the second cohort of students since the start of C200S and it reveals students' perceptions of science within the context of the new curriculum. This study aims to include students' perceptions of science in the context of schools resisting curriculum change.
The primary research question that framed this study was: What are 10th grade physics students' conceptions of the nature of science. Two secondary research questions that guided this study were: To what extent, if at all, is the nature of students' views of science consistent with contemporary views and those of C2005. In order to get the answer to these questions, the students first had to complete a questionnaire related to the nature of science.
RESEARCH DESIGN
- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
- PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
- RESEARCH APPROACH
- STRATEGY OF INQUIRY
- ETHICAL ISSUES
- STRATEGIES FOR DATA COLLECTION
- NATURE OF SCIENCE QUESTIONNAIRE
- SCENARIOS OF SCIENCE
- RESEARCH SITES AND SAMPLING
- SUMMARY
In this study, the purpose of the scenarios used was to gain a richer and more complete understanding of the students' ideas about the nature of science. One of the most common and valid pencil-and-paper instruments for assessing students' understanding of the nature of science is the Views on Science-Technology-Society (VOSTS) questionnaire designed by Ryan and Aikenhead (1992). As a result of the focus group discussion and comments, I made some changes to the statements.
The purpose of the t-tests was to investigate whether the nature perceptions of science for men and women and for the two racial groups are different. She provided valuable input regarding the scenarios used and the structure of the open questions. An open-ended questionnaire consisting of a set of scenarios related to the natural sciences was used to collect qualitative data.
DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS
NATURE OF SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE
They are of the opinion that scientific facts do not change, but that scientific theories do. The majority of students (17) indicated that the medicinal properties of the hoodia plant discovered by the San people cannot be considered scientific knowledge. Seven students indicated that knowledge about the hoodia plant could be considered scientific knowledge.
When asked if San's knowledge could be seen as scientific knowledge if it appeared in science texts, 17 students chose yes. There were seven students (five males and two females) who indicated that they would not consider knowledge of San scientific knowledge even though it was displayed. In this study, students' conceptions of science knowledge for six of the seven statements in the survey questionnaire were consistent with science.
NATURE OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY
When examining the means from Table 4.6, it appears that male and female students have similar conceptions of the scientific research line. It is clear that these students have been operating within an empirical paradigm and have ignored the other rational and analytical activities that are characteristic of scientific inquiry. Students in this study had a better understanding of empirical methods than the creative nature of scientific inquiry.
A small percentage agreed with the statements related to imagination and creativity in scientific research. Many students were not aware of the creative nature of explanations in scientific inquiry as they were more concerned with "proof" and. Indian students in this study appeared to possess stronger beliefs in the inventive nature of scientific inquiry and the diversity of scientific thinking compared to Black students.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
There were statistically significant differences between the two cultural groups for three statements in this string. The second scenario (scenario 1.3) in this thread referred to a team of genetic engineering researchers and the effect of scientists' religious beliefs on research. The third scenario in this strand (scenario three) concerns the development of a chemical to prevent smoking.
The students in this study held a positivist view regarding the effect of scientists' personal beliefs and values on research. A significant number of students in this study also answered in the open-ended questionnaire that religious beliefs should not influence scientific research. It is clear that the students in this study did not possess contemporary concepts of bias and the influence of scientists' personal beliefs and values on science.
IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
SUMMARY OF STUDY FINDINGS
In general, the learners had the following contemporary views of the nature of science shared by the scientific community and present in curriculum 2005: Scientific knowledge grows slowly as new evidence challenges existing theories; science has limitations in that it can only explain certain aspects of reality; different cultures have contributed to our understanding of the world and the advancement of science;. Nevertheless, the value of African science is not explicitly mentioned in the nature of science studies and needs further research. There was a significant difference between the sexes where women held more contemporary views for the following aspects: the provisional nature of scientific theories; the multicultural nature of scientific knowledge;.
There were also significant differences between Indian and Black learners for certain beliefs about the nature of science. Indian learners appeared to have stronger beliefs in the diversity of scientific thought and the inventive nature (creativity) of explanations and models; critical peer. Women will have stronger beliefs regarding: the provisional nature of scientific theories; the cross-cultural nature of scientific knowledge; replication to validate results and cooperation and collaboration between scientists.
LIMITATIONS
Indian students would have stronger beliefs about critical peer review of results, government and societal influence on research, the use of creativity and imagination to invent scientific explanations and models, the limitations of science, and the diversity of scientific thinking. Black students would value both African science and Western science, while Indian students would place greater emphasis on Western science. However, the researcher believes that when teachers read this study, it will help them plan the explicit nature of science instruction to target specific science constructs, be aware of differences between groups of learners, and to explore their students' perceptions of the nature of science.
IMPLICATIONS
Furthermore, many textbooks still focus on content and either avoid aspects of the nature of science or cover them very superficially. This will help teachers to deliberately plan teaching that enables learners to actively compare pre-existing conceptions with more grounded conceptions of the nature of science. McComas (2008) provides examples from various books that teachers can use to teach various aspects of the nature of science.
In this study, the researcher found that the scenarios give more insight into learners' conceptions of the nature of science than the closed questionnaire. There is still room for improving the quality of teaching and training of teachers so that they can successfully teach contemporary aspects of the nature of science. Textbooks and other curricular materials should include the nature of science activities that force learners to reflect on their own conceptions of some aspect of the nature of science.
Constructing views of science related to equity and diversity issues: A study of beginning science teachers. Using Real and Imaginary Examples in Communicating the Nature of Science: A Course Outline. The Nature of Scientific Activities Using the Scientific Profile: From the Hawking-Gould Dichotomy to a Philosophical Checklist.
Ten myths of science: Reexamining what we think we know about the nature of science. A multi-year program that develops an explicit reflective pedagogy to teach pre-service teachers the nature of science. The progress towards constructivist epistemological views of science: a case study of STS teaching of Taiwanese high school female students.
APPENDICES
Circle one of the numbers that indicates your opinion of the statement.
When a research team makes a discovery, it is all 13 right for them to announce it to the press in advance.
Genetic engineering refers to the artificial alteration or reshuffling of the genetic code (found in DNA) of a living organism. Plants have been genetically engineered to be drought tolerant (eg sugarcane), cold tolerant (eg rice), herbicide resistant (eg wheat), etc. Some people are opposed to the manipulation of genes because of possible health and ecological consequences in the future even though there have been no adverse effects yet.
A key scientist on the research team claimed, "We are not here to play God, we must leave living things as they are by nature." As a result of her religious beliefs, she convinced the other scientists on the team to stop their research into Parkinson's disease and pursue other research that did not conflict with her religious beliefs. They have decided, with permission from the relevant authorities, but unknown to you, to put this chemical (undetected in water) into the drinking water of your suburbs.
I NAME: I
In the early 1980s, geologist WaIter Alvarez, son of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Luis Alvarez, discovered a layer of clay deposited during the extinction of the dinosaurs in an Italian town. Extraterrestrial rocks (from outer space) such as meteorites were known to contain high concentrations of iridium. Some scientists argue that such an impact would have caused a dust cloud that blocked sunlight for years, halted plant growth, and killed all large animal species including the dinosaurs.
Other scientists have suggested that a series of volcanic eruptions could have caused the same effect, throwing iridium deep into the earth into the atmosphere.
