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…

Studies consistently show the social impact of spreading epistemologically unfounded beliefs (or 'conspiracy beliefs'), including negative effects on public health. The present study identified correlations among epistemologically unfounded beliefs, authoritarianism, and scientific literacy in a representative sample of 303 Slovak secondary school…

Recent reforms in science education have promoted students' understanding of how science works, including the methodological approaches used by scientists. Given that teachers are expected to teach and promote methodological pluralism, it is worth examining how teachers understand and view scientific methods, particularly when scientific methods…

Even though it is widely held that the theory of evolution is one of the pillars of the biological sciences, as we begin the third decade of the twenty-first century, it is alarming how little we know about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors and non-STEM majors' misconceptions about evolution in countries such as…

The teaching of the phenomenon of radioactivity is considered a key ingredient in the path towards developing critical thinking skills in many secondary science education curricula. Despite being one of the basic concepts in general physics courses, the scientific teaching literature of the last 40 years reports a great deal of misconceptions and…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we are fighting not only the novel coronavirus, but also the "infodemic" induced by the pandemic. Therefore, it is urgent to explore approaches for enhancing individual immunity against science-related misinformation. We conducted a cross-sectional study to examine the relationship between public engagement…

Do pre-service teachers have the same beliefs in superstitions and pseudoscience as the members of their generation? We expect so, because they are slightly different in at least two of the variables that explain differences, namely family income and level of studies, and also, normatively, because beliefs among teaching staff appear to be a key…

Nature of science (NOS) is a global conception of the infrastructure of science and, therefore, forms the foundation for teaching and learning science, especially for preservice teachers who are expected to have the proper understanding of NOS to thoughtfully emphasize NOS within their instruction to students. However, studies investigating UAE…

A well-informed populace is vitally important for the proper functioning of democracy. Media news articles constitute an essential means by which the public comes into contact with scientific issues. However, not all of the scientific information presented in news articles is trustworthy or accurate. Naturally, the situation becomes more…

In the post-truth era, one challenge facing science education is the circulation of fake news that distorts the information available for decision-making on issues that have a scientific basis and are controversial for society. In this work, we aimed at designing a learning environment with the objective of equipping students with skills that…

The devastating COVID-19 pandemic has cast a light on the question of why trust in scientists is important. This mixed-method study aimed to explore the study participants' trust in scientists about getting the COVID-19 vaccine. It also aimed to reveal which key sources of information participants followed about the pandemic. Participants'…

In order to increase scientific competence within the general population, it is important that teachers and educators have a realistic image of science and scientists, leaving aside superstitions and pseudoscientific claims that could be transmitted to their students. A starting point in this strategy is to make a good diagnosis of the future…

This article studies the conceptions of the interior of the Earth held by Portuguese elementary school children and senior citizens. Several studies were conducted regarding conceptions related to Earth sciences, such as rocks, minerals, earthquakes geological time, and Earth structure. Most of these studies involved students enrolled in…

Nuclear science has uses and applications that are relevant and crucial for world peace and sustainable development, so knowledge of its basic concepts and topics should constitute an integral part of civic scientific literacy. We have used two newspaper articles that deal with uses of nuclear science that are directly relevant to life, society,…

In this study, we investigated distinctions among the diversity of religious traditions represented by Lebanese and Egyptian Muslim high school students regarding their understanding and acceptance of biological evolution and how they relate the science to their religious beliefs. We explored secondary students' conceptions of evolution among…