An important goal of science education is for students to understand the nature of science. Science education has raised the question of what science is, how scientific knowledge is developed and how people participate in this process under the conceptual umbrella of 'nature of science' (NOS). This study aims to look at the effectiveness of the…

In this article, a series of activities on explicit teaching of specific aspects of the 'nature of science' are presented. The authors explore teaching the nature of science through inquiry-based activities on electric circuits. The activities concern classification of objects as conductors or insulators and took place in three classes of 4th…

A "Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS") are intended for all students, hence "all standards, all students" (NGSS Lead States 2013). To make this vision a reality, the "NGSS" highlight three key instructional shifts: (1) explain phenomena or design solutions…

The aim of the present research was to explore the effect of the Common Knowledge Construction Model (CKCM)- oriented education on sixth grade students' views on the Nature of Science (NOS) and to compare it with the existing learning model (5Es learning model). The research was conducted with a total of 76 students (38 by 38--for experimental and…

Background: Helping upper elementary and lower secondary school students develop an awareness of various aspects of the nature of science (NOS) and nature of technology (NOT) is a widely recognized goal of science teaching. In this study, we focus on the connections between science and technology (S&T). Purpose: We report on the design,…

The nature of science (NOS) has become a central goal of science education in many countries. This study refers to a "developmental work research" program, in which four fifth-grade elementary in-service teachers participated. It aimed to improve their understandings of NOS and their abilities to teach it effectively to their students.…

In the rapidly developing age of technology, the contribution of using multimedia-supported instructional materials in the field of teaching technologies to science education has been increasing steadily. The purpose of this research is to compare the multimedia learning instructional materials prepared according to the 7E learning model and the…

The aim of this study was to design and evaluate an inquiry- and activity-based learning unit for the classroom that uses biological collections to teach key evolutionary concepts and to support the understanding and appreciation of the work of a museum. The unit consisted of three parts that focused on the most important tasks of museums:…

Unfortunately, for the most part, teachers do not teach the Nature of Science (NOS). Even when teachers have adequate NOS knowledge, their knowledge still does not make its way into practice. While there are various reasons for this happening, this study has isolated other, more typical, constraints to teaching in order to look more closely at the…

This article focuses on the impact of a professional play that we developed in order to introduce elementary learners of an urban school to the research of a scientist working at a local university. The play was written in a way that might increase student understandings of the nature of science, scientific inquiry, the identity of scientists, and…

Demonstrating is a traditional method in teaching science that can raise interest and encourage pupils to think about a topic. While demonstrating, the teacher can focus the pupils' attention on the relevant facts and introduce scientific principles and concepts. Through discussion and actively making observations and inferences, rather than…

This study investigated how student participation in an authentic scientific investigation may shape underrepresented students' views of science and support students in learning science. The research centered on the instructional approach used in a fifth-grade classroom to engage English language learning students from Latino backgrounds in a…

Anecdotal accounts from science educators suggest that few teachers are teaching science as inquiry. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this claim. This study aimed to provide evidence-based documentation of the state-of-use of inquiry-based instruction and explicit instruction about nature of science (NOS). We examined the…

This article presents the experiences of Miss Felecia McLaughlin, a fourth-grade teacher from the island of Jamaica who used the model proposed by Bass et al. (2009) to assess conceptual understanding of four of the six types of simple machines while encouraging collaboration through the creation of learning teams. Students had an opportunity to…

The article is aimed at a partial problem of science process skills development--the evaluation of educational outcomes. In comparison to evaluation of obtained knowledge, the skills development is not so easy to be objectively evaluated. The article provides a proposal of an evaluation tool and describes the first results of its research…