In this study, high school physics textbooks published by People's Education Press (PEP) and Educational Science Publishing House (ESP) (a total of 6 books) in China were analyzed via a self-developed scale measuring nature of science (NOS) including three first-level indicators of scientific knowledge, scientific process, and scientific…

Ongoing changes in mental and personal characteristics of the modern child initiate the updating of means and forms of education. And they, in their turn, update methodological techniques and approaches to the use of methods during the math class. The source of updating methodological techniques may be the principles used when solving scientific…

In this study, we probed high school students' understanding of Einstein's theory of gravity by implementing an approach which mainly consists of two steps: firstly, exposing students to TEs describing the Equivalence Principle; secondly, applying the analogy of parallel lines on a curved surface with the path of two falling balls in a real…

How do scientists make inferences for something they cannot directly observe? The Black Box approach seems ideal to help students understand how scientists work. Black Boxes are sealed units; their interior is not accessible. The effort to determine their possible content (internal structure) demands successive modifications in hypothesis,…

Epistemology plays an important role in detecting learning difficulties in a given field of knowledge and in directing strategies to eliminate them. This quantitative study aimed to get to know the perceptions of 624 students, related to the nature of science and science teaching and learning. The cross-sectional survey, based on the Inventory of…

Recent GCSE and IGCSE specifications include reference to both permanent and induced magnetism, giving the opportunity for novel classroom demonstrations based on ferromagnetism and paramagnetism, and the transition between these phases. Ferromagnetic materials lose their magnetism if raised above their Curie Temperature, a specific temperature…

The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of the explicit nature of science instruction embedded in the Argument-Driven Inquiry method compared with an implicit inquiry method on eleventh grade students' conceptions of NOS. The study used a pre-/post-test control group design to investigate the influence of the explicit nature…

The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of meaning making based instruction regarding angular momentum conservation on the change of two 11th grade students' alternative ideas they have before instruction. Case study model is used in the research. Conceptual test (implemented before the instruction, right after the instruction and fifteen…

This paper will try to give an alternative treatment of the subject "parallel RLC circuits" and "resonance in parallel RLC circuits" from the Physics curricula for the XIth grade from Romanian high-schools, with an emphasis on practical type circuits and their possible applications, and intends to be an aid for both Physics…

This study considers how students change their coherent conceptual understanding of natural selection through a hands-on simulation. The results show that most students change their understanding. In addition, some students also underwent a transformative experience and used their new knowledge in a leisure time activity. These transformative…

That the interplay of random and deterministic processes may result in both the limited predictability of nonlinear systems and the formation of structures seems to be a most valuable general insight into the nature of science. This study investigates the possibility of teaching and learning the interplay of chance and determinism in nonlinear…

Treating creationism as a controversial topic within the science and religion issue in the science classroom has been widely discussed in the recent literature. Some researchers have proposed that this topic is best addressed by focusing on sociocognitive conflict. To prepare new learning opportunities for this approach, it is necessary to know…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two learning contexts for explicit-reflective nature of science (NOS) instruction, socioscientific issues (SSI) driven and content driven, on student NOS conceptions. Four classes of 11th and 12th grade anatomy and physiology students participated. Two classes experienced a curricular…

The study investigated tenth-, eleventh-, and twelfth-grade students' alternative ideas relating to the motion of a body travelling in the field of gravity with an initial horizontal velocity. The sample of the study consisted of 40 tenth-grade students, and 33 and 40 eleventh-grade students that attended different sections of upper secondary…

The aim of this study was to elicit students' conceptions about big bubbles in boiling liquids (water, ethanol and aqueous CuSO[subscript 4] solution). The study is based on twenty-four students at different ages and grades. The clinical interviews technique was conducted to solicit students' conceptions and the interviews were analyzed to…