This study developed an empirically based questionnaire to monitor young learners' conceptions of nature of science (NOS). The questionnaire, entitled Students' Ideas about Nature of Science (SINOS), measured views on theory-ladenness, use of creativity and imagination, tentativeness of scientific knowledge, durability of scientific knowledge,…

An exposition is made of a method to elicit students' comprehension of the meaning of words commonly used in science, which may be influential in determining what they learn. The method's aim is to elucidate features in students' understanding of childrens' science (that found before formal teaching of science), student science (that found after…

This study assessed the construct validity of a cognitive structure interpretation of multidimensional scaling solutions of concept similarity data. Using high school subjects, convergent validity was assessed through correspondence of scaling solutions of three similarity rating tasks; word association, similarity judgment, and semantic…