Design activities can serve as a concrete experience to address the similarities and differences between science and engineering, and also demarcate engineering from tinkering. They can lay the foundation for concept development of targeted disciplinary ideas. Minor, but crucial, changes to classroom tinkering activities along with targeting and…

This study reports the participation of 13 secondary science teachers in informal support networks and how that participation was associated with their nature of science (NOS) teaching practices 2 to 5 years after having graduated from the same science teacher education program. The nine teachers who participated in informal support networks…

This study investigated what 13 secondary science teachers at various nature of science (NOS) instruction implementation levels talked about when they reflected on their teaching. We then determined if differences exist in the quality of those reflections between high, medium, and low NOS implementers. This study sought to answer the following…

The study reported here investigated experienced teachers' views on several nature of science (NOS) issues 2 to 5 years after they completed a demanding secondary science teacher education program in which the NOS was an extensive and recurring component. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed to determine study…

This editorial examines significant deleterious issues that have emerged unchecked, and seemingly embraced unwittingly, by the greater science education community, the public at-large, and even segments of the international science education community. Their claims are grounded in three main cases that are distinct, yet intertwined with one…

Science education efforts have long emphasized inquiry, and inquiry and scientific practices are prominent in contemporary science education reform documents (NRC 1996; NGSS Lead States 2013). However, inquiry has not become commonplace in science teaching, in part because of misunderstandings regarding what it means and entails (Demir and Abell…

The assertion that general reform-based science teaching practices (GRBSTPs) can facilitate nature of science (NOS) instruction has been mentioned in the literature, but rigorous and transparent empirical substantiation for this claim has not been made. This investigation empirically demonstrates an association between thirteen experienced…

Understanding the nature of science (NOS)--what science is and how it works, the assumptions that underlie scientific knowledge, how scientists function as a social group, and how society impacts and reacts to science--is prominent in science education reform documents (Rutherford and Ahlgren 1990; AAAS 1993; McComas and Olson 1998; NRC 1996; AAAS…

With funding from the United States National Science Foundation, 30 historical short stories designed to teach science content and draw students' attention to the nature of science (NOS) have been created for post-secondary introductory astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, and physics courses. The project rationale, story development and…

Much has been written about how effective nature of science instruction must have a significant explicit and reflective character. However, while explicitly drawing students' attention to NOS issues is crucial, learning and teaching the NOS are essentially matters of conceptual change. In this article, how people learn and learners' responses to…

Accurately conveying the nature of science (NOS)--what science is and how it works--is common to most science education standards documents, including the "National Science Education Standards" and "Science for All Americans". Understanding the NOS is crucial to scientific literacy since mistaken ideas of science will likely affect students'…

Urges science teachers and their students to gain an understanding of the nature of science. Describes this field as a blending of various aspects of the social studies of science such as the history, sociology, and philosophy of science. Contains 118 references. (DDR)