Promoting understanding of the epistemologies of science has long been the primary objective in science education, and can be viewed as a form of science learning outcome. Many studies have attempted to understand learners' conceptions of epistemology in science from various perspectives and methods; however, no recent reviews have focused on the…

This study questions the presumed relation between formal schooling and scientific literacy about biotechnologies. Comparing science and nonscience majors' knowledge of and attitudes toward biotechnological applications, conclusions are drawn if their formal learnings improve pupils' understandings of and attitudes toward biotechnology…

One of the most important attribute for being scientifically literate in the context of science education requires individuals do research, inquiry and develop scientific attitudes toward facts brought about around them. In addition, it is often stated in the literature that individuals who are scientifically literate can also think critically and…

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Astronomy Education Research.] We report on a study of almost 13 000 undergraduate students enrolled in introductory astronomy courses at the University of Arizona. From 1989 to 2016, students completed a basic science knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes survey. From 2014 to 2016, a subset of the…

The purpose of the investigation was to investigate the consistency of NOS views among high school students across different scientific and socio-scientific contexts. A total of 261 high school students from eight different schools in Lebanon participated in the investigation. The schools were selected based on different geographical areas in…

The focus of this study was student teachers at a South African university enrolled in a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) programme and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), respectively. The purpose of this study was to explore students' understanding and acceptance of evolution and beliefs about the nature of science (NOS), and to…

This study explores the relationship between exposure to pseudoscientific television (TV) programmes and pseudoscientific beliefs among Taiwanese university students. The "scale of attitude toward pseudoscience" instrument was used to measure the attitudes of 380 Taiwanese university students who served as subjects for the study. The…

Publications such as "Surrounded by science: Learning science in informal environments" [Fenichel, M., & Schweingruber, H. A. (2010). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press] and "Learning science in informal environments: People, places, and pursuits" [National Research Council. (2009). Washington, DC: National…

Background: An elaborated understanding of Nature of Science (NOS) is seen as an important part of scientific literacy. In order to enable teachers to adequately discuss NOS in their lessons, various approaches have recently been employed to improve teachers' understanding of NOS. Purpose: This study investigated the effect of participating in a…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of scientific studies on students' scientific literacy and attitude towards science course. For the study, a middle school science study group was established by randomly selecting 30 students from the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Participating students were given information about the…

The aim of this study is to reveal prospective teachers' perceptions of the concept of science by asking them to use metaphors to describe it. A metaphor elicitation method was employed in this study. The data obtained from the study were considered with both quantitative and qualitative (Content Analysis) analyses. The study determined the…

This study aimed to investigate ninth grade students' views about enzymes using fortune lines technique and to obtain the students' views about fortune lines technique. Participants were 38 ninth grade students in a Technique Vocational Girls High School in the city of Kocaeli, Turkey. After instruction of subject of enzymes, the participants were…

This study uses hierarchical linear modeling to examine the influence of a range of factors on the science performances of Hong Kong students in PISA 2006. Hong Kong has been consistently ranked highly in international science assessments, such as Programme for International Student Assessment and Trends in International Mathematics and Science…

This study investigated the effects of exposure to pseudoscientific television (TV) programs upon Taiwanese citizens' pseudoscientific beliefs. The beliefs and practices of pseudoscience portrayed in the media may misguide the citizens in making life choices that may lead to negative consequences. Participants of this study included 2,024…

The purpose of this quantitative study is to understand the attitudes of Taiwanese adult citizens over 18 years of age toward science and technology. A theoretical model is constructed and evaluated to identify factors that affect public attitudes. Differences in citizens' gender, age, and educational level are also examined to determine whether…