This paper is concerned with the conceptualization of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching about the nature of science. In contrast to the view that science teachers need to develop a specific "PCK for nature of science," an alternative, more comprehensive notion of PCK for science teaching is suggested. The point of…

Error in science is a prime occasion to teach the nature of science, especially the central feature of tentativeness. Error types also reflect corresponding methodologies of science, critical for practicing science and (in a context of scientific literacy) analyzing its claims. Effective efforts in teaching about error will ideally be informed by…

I profile here a prospective method for assessing nature of science (NOS) knowledge, as an alternative to VNOS and similar approaches. Questions about cases in contemporary news and from history probe scientific literacy in context. Scoring targets how "well informed" the analysis is, based on identifying relevant NOS information and interpreting…

For many decades, science educators have asked, "In what ways should learning the content of traditional subjects serve as the means to more general ends, such as understanding the nature of science or the processes of scientific inquiry?" Acceptance of these ends reduces the role of disciplinary context; the "Footprints Puzzle" and Oregon's…

Although there has been considerable focus on the underrepresentation of minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and the need for science instruction that fosters diversity, much of the associated effort has focused on the goal of diversity and tended to assume that science and science learning are…

This paper examines the framings that the fields of the social studies of science and science education use for each other. It is shown that the social studies of science frames science education as passive and timeless. Science education frames science studies as a set of representations to better capture how science works. The paper then…

Stephen Brush once asked, "Should the history of science be rated 'X'" Well, times have changed. Now controversy reigns over the role of sociology in the science classroom. Here, I profile several dimensions of the sociology of science and survey recent efforts by philosophers to address its most radical claims. In respecting the opposing poles of…

Constructing scientific explanations and participating in argumentative discourse are seen as essential practices of scientific inquiry (e.g., R. Driver, P. Newton, & J. Osborne, 2000). In this paper, we identify three goals of engaging in these related scientific practices: (1) sensemaking, (2) articulating, and (3) persuading. We propose using…

Describes the division of universalists and multiculturalists over the question of the nature of science. Universalists maintain that science has a universal essence and western modern science is the paradigm example of such science. Multiculturalists appeal to the disunity of science thesis to undermine the view that all sciences must have a…

We describe a longitudinal study of a secondary education biology teacher at two moments in her career (1993-2002), determining the changes in her conceptions of the nature of science and its teaching and learning, and the factors that favored or hindered such changes. The changes were analyzed using cognitive maps, constructed on the basis of the…

Discussed are two contrasting views about the nature of scientific thinking including Pearson's and Collingwood's. The contexts of questions, methods, problems, experiments, and history are described as contexts of inquiry. The physical thoughts of scientists from pre-Aristotelian times to the present are outlined in relation to contexts of…

Two seemingly complementary trends stand out currently in school science education in the United States: one is the increased emphasis on inquiry activities in classrooms, and the other is the high level of attention given to student understanding of the nature of science. This essay looks at the range of activities that fall within the first…

Analyzes how educators currently frame historical stories to portray the process of science. Discusses the importance of narratives of error and recovery from error in illustrating the nature of science and its limits. Emphasizes history that conveys the nature of science effectively. (Author/KHR)

Science education reforms consistently maintain the goal that students develop an understanding of the nature of science, including both the nature of scientific knowledge and methods for making it. This paper articulates a framework for scaffolding epistemic aspects of inquiry that can help students understand inquiry processes in relation to the…