Nature of Science (NOS) has been enumerated as one of the important elements in education because robust conceptions of NOS is essential for individuals to be considered as scientific literate. As teachers are vital in imparting sound NOS conceptions to their students, they must possess sound NOS conceptions. However, studies have shown that…

Gerard Leonard uncovers the living organic vision of Montessori scientific thought principles to ponder for our generation of Montessori: "To be ecoliterate is to understand the basic principles of ecology and to endeavor to live by them. Having a systems view of life, or what we would call in Montessori education, 'an understanding of the…

Problem-solving skills in creative, open-ended domains are both important and little understood. These domains are generally ill-structured, have extremely large exploration spaces, and require high levels of specialized skill in order to produce quality solutions. We investigate problem-solving behavior in one such domain, the…

A.V. Usova (1921-2014) has always been one of the leading figures in Russian physics education. Her theory of physics concept formation was formulated during the 1970s and the 1980s and directly influenced the process of physics education in the 20th and the 21st century. Over the years there have been a lot of theories of concept formation. Her…

The Nature of science (NOS) has been thought of as an important component of "Science literacy" that the goal of standards-based science education. The aim of this paper try to present NOS for science education. Hereby, we may compile and notice where we promote students' understanding NOS. We find the highlight by using…

This seven to eight week hands-on Marine Debris Clean-up Project used a service project to provide an introduction of marine science ecology, watershed interrelationships, the scientific method, and environmental stewardship to 8th grade middle school students. It utilized inquiry based learning to introduce marine debris sources and impacts to…

Very little has been published about the amount and nature science teaching in Australian primary schools and that which has is largely based on written surveys completed by teachers and principals at a sample of schools. This study was designed to follow these surveys into the classroom. I observed fourteen science lessons, interviewed twelve…

This paper examines and tests the assumptions that a curriculum which adequately portrays instructional strategies (related to teaching the nature of science, science curricular content, and teachers' views of the nature of science) will increase students' understanding of the nature of science. This study was conducted over a 16-week period. A…

This case study of learning explores the relationship between a chemistry teacher's instrumentalist perspective on the nature of science, the classroom culture that flourished through curriculum enactment during the course of a school year, and development of perspectives on science by his students. An ethnographic methodology was employed, with…

This position statement begins with an outline of the meanings for terms that are central to the session topic at which this paper was presented: inquiry, inquiry learning, scientific inquiry, and scientific method. The central issues of inquiry's place in science education and as a more general educational approach are then discussed. Finally,…

"Inquiry" is the enterprise by which scientists generate theory. It is also a broadly-applied label for instructional approaches in which teachers and students emulate the activity of scientists in order to generate personal knowledge of natural phenomena and to come to understand the canons of disciplinary knowledge-building. Despite the ubiquity…

Developing an understanding of the nature of science (NOS) among students is one of the goals of scientific literacy. According to research, K-12 students do not have contemporary views of NOS and teachers' views of NOS generally are not consistent as well. This paper presents a study investigating the effects of different types of NOS…

This study brings an anthropological perspective informed by sociolinguistic discourse analysis to examine how teachers, students, and scientists constructed ways of investigating and knowing science. The teaching and learning processes for a group of third grade students and how, in the following academic year, these same students drew upon their…

This investigation was guided by the following research questions: (1) how do teachers' understandings of the nature of science influence classroom practice?; and (2) what factors facilitate or impede the influence of teachers' understandings on classroom practice? An in-depth, year long assessment of the classroom practices and goals of five…

This study was designed to examine preservice elementary teachers' beliefs about the nature of science, document changes in these beliefs over the duration of a year-long science methods course and embedded teaching practicum, and assess the impact of these beliefs on their classroom practice (Bright, 2001). The pre-test and post-test case study…