Whilst teaching about the nature of science (NOS) is a significant goal of science education, there remains debate about specifying the NOS and appropriate pedagogies and approaches to researching the NOS. A neglected, but conceptually and practically significant, problem is the proliferation of NOS-related learning goals such as NOS beliefs,…

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…

Scientific literacy is the primary goal of elementary science education. Scientific literacy requires an overall understanding of what science is, and how and why scientific knowledge is developed. The normal assumption is that as students progress in school, they learn more. One would expect students to become more scientifically literate as they…

This work reports the development and application of an analytical tool for the analysis of the formation of the scientific mind of students who took part in inquiry activities, based on the philosophy of Gaston Bachelard, in a Chemistry Club. For the construction of the analytical instrument, an extracurricular course was offered to first-year…

Children's naive theories include misconceptions which can interfere with science learning. This research examined the effect of pairing anomalies with alternative theories, and their order of presentation, on children's belief revision. Children believe that heavy objects sink and light ones float. In a pre-, mid-, and post-test design,…

In this study, we propose to analyse students' drawings using the Semiotic Cultural Psychological Theory (SCPT), a socio-cultural psychological model that integrates semiotics with dynamic systems theory. According to the SCPT framework, students-generated drawings can be analysed in terms of generalised meanings, i.e., implicit assumptions about…

This study investigated whether participation in a 1-semester science course for college students who are not majoring in the natural sciences could increase their scientific literacy, confidence in doing science and improve their perception of science and scientists. The study was conducted at a small, 4-year, liberal arts institution in Portland…

This study investigated the science competencies that scientists and students perceived as important and their science-related experiences and analyzed them comprehensively using activity system framework in order to explore which competencies need to be emphasized more and what experiences and environments should be provided in school science…

In pursuit of active learning and fostering conceptual understanding, educators and researchers have tirelessly endeavored to reshape the perception of chemistry, transcending its apparent barriers of technical jargon, semantics, and symbolism. One innovative approach that aligns with this mission is the integration of narratives into chemical…

Scientific reasoning competencies (SRC) are an area of competence emphasized in science education and are considered essential in the world of 21st Century skills. Developing these competencies is important for all levels of education, from primary school to university. However, to accurately measure them, measurement tools with validity and…

While the United States (U.S.) and Canada share features in their secondary education systems (e.g. proportion of immigrants), these nations have differences (e.g. linguistic ). Given the primacy of Canada over the U.S. vis-à-vis science literacy [as measured by the Programme International for Student Assessment (PISA)], underlying differences in…

Citizen Science projects are continuously growing in popularity as they offer a unique possibility to conduct large-scale research projects as well as allow citizens to broaden their knowledge about the research topic or the process of scientific investigations. However, the benefits for participants vary, depending on the way and the amount of…

In this paper, I consider whether the critical rationalist philosophy of science may provide a rationale for trusting scientific knowledge. In the first part, I refer to several insights of Karl Popper's social and political philosophy in order to see whether they may be of help in offsetting the distrust of science spawned by the COVID-19…

There is substantial research in science education about students', teachers', and scientists' views of nature of science (NOS). Many studies have used NOS frameworks that focus on particular ideas such as tentativeness of scientific knowledge and cultural embeddedness of science. In this paper, we investigate NOS from the perspective of the…

This study used the structural equation model to examine teachers' scientific epistemological beliefs, critical thinking skills, and beliefs about the distinction between science and pseudoscience. The study involved 730 teachers from 26 different subjects in different regions of Türkiye. Descriptive analyses showed a significant relationship…