Fostering students' scientific literacy is a key goal of science education, with understanding the nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI) as a central component. Achieving this goal requires teachers to possess adequate knowledge in this area. However, assessments indicate that pre-service science teachers (PSTs) have not yet developed comprehensive…

This qualitative study compares the views about nature of science (NOS) between students enrolled in a traditional lecture and laboratory course and students in an inquiry-based class to the view of the scientists who taught the course. We administered the Views of Nature of Science Form C (VNOS-C) to identify students' views after partaking in…

In this paper, we use the "Family Resemblance Approach" (FRA) as a framework to characterize how scientists view the nature of science (NOS). FRA presents NOS as a "system" that includes clusters or categories of ideas about the cognitive-epistemic and social-institutional aspects of science. For example, the…

Mixed methods research plays an important role in understanding and supporting the implementation of inclusive education policies and practices around the world. The aim of this scoping review was to assess the rigour of 66 mixed methods research texts in inclusive education by applying Harrison, Reilly, and Creswell's (2020) Rigorous Mixed…

The paper aims to provide a review of literature that emphasizes students' and teachers' views on the nature of science (NOS) and associated instructional approaches to develop adequate understanding of the NOS that have been employed in different contexts. One hundred and seventy-two (172) studies were selected from ResearchGate, Academia, Google…

In this article, we tackle the phenomenon of what seems to be a misunderstanding between science education theory and philosophy of science--one which does not seem to have received any attention in the literature. While there seems to be a consensus within the realm of science education on limiting or altogether denying the explanatory role of…

Literature suggests the transfer of understanding the nature of science to instructional practice requires preservice teachers to value teaching about the nature of science. Despite decades of research developing preservice teachers' views of nature of science, there is still a disconnect between their understanding and instructional practice.…

For many years, hegemonic approaches to teaching the nature of science (NOS) have focused mainly on understanding some epistemic (i.e., rational, or cognitive) aspects involved in the construction of science. So, aspects of a non-epistemic (i.e., non-rational, contextual, or extra-scientific) nature have been practically neglected in these…

It has been shown that many people do not understand how scientific knowledge is built and accepted, even after scientific education. One way to deal with this problem is through teaching about the Nature of Science (NOS). NOS can be understood as a pedagogical construct aiming to foster the understanding of the main characteristics of scientific…

The notion of function is central in all of the secondary curriculum, and indeed functional models appear in almost all higher education that is based on mathematics. However, in secondary education, functions usually appear in restricted and somewhat sterile forms. In this (mostly theoretical) paper, we present a proposal -- exemplified by a…

The family resemblance approach to nature of science is receiving increasing attention by science educators since its inception about a decade ago. Many scholars of science education have contributed and continue to contribute to it not only theoretically but also by applying it empirically to a wide range of areas such as curriculum and textbook…

Energy conversion devices such as fuel cells, metal-air batteries, and electrolyzers have been envisaged as possible solutions for cutting down the continuous accumulation of greenhouse gases resulting from the combustion of fossil fuel. The bottleneck reaction for these devices is the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) occurring at the cathode. The…

The purpose of this study was twofold: first, to investigate science teachers' views about the nature of science (NOS); and second, to examine science teachers' views about their NOS integration into instruction. Reconceptualized family resemblance approach to nature of science (RFN) is used as a theoretical and analytical framework. The…

The French natural philosopher Henri Victor Regnault (1810-1878) was one of many researchers who contributed to the development of the thermometer in the 19th century. In this paper, we use an example from Regnault's work to explore how the history of thermometry can provide a context for teaching upper-secondary chemistry students about the…

The purpose of this publication is to present a novel approach to the demonstration of the Dzhanibekov effect. The main idea of our version is to use a lightweight spinning top of a spherical external form but distinct principal moments of inertia floating in the upward flow of air. As a result, the Dzhanibekov effect can be easily demonstrated…