The Nature of Science

The development of students' opinions about learning science is based on their understanding of the nature of science. According to Akerson and Abd-El-Khalick (2005), students in fourth grad... See More

The development of students' opinions about learning science is based on their understanding of the nature of science. According to Akerson and Abd-El-Khalick (2005), students in fourth grade believe that knowledge from textbooks would not be changed forever. The more they know about science, they will get to know that science still has room for creativity. Conley and colleagues (2004) also found that fifth-grade students prefer and pay attention to the "right" answer. They regarded scientists as omniscience who know everything. "The nature of science must be a purposeful and explicit part of classroom lessons and discussions for students to develop their understanding."Akerson and Volrich (2006) helped first-grade students improve their understanding by using examples. They could explain that science can be changed owing to new evidence At the last paragraph of this article, the author offered some suggestions about how to teach science as teachers. Obviously, teachers should comprehend the content themselves and analyze what is important to teach. Then, using some instructional strategies can be effective. For instance, ask students to draw what they think about science and communicate with them. If students can infer what is the procedure of the changing information they got from textbooks. They will be more interested in how science can affect the world and what will happen in future Teachers also can encourage students to have a group discussion of the nature of science with classmates. Therefore, they can have critical thinking and be able to express their ideas about science. As has been stated, students should understand the nature of science and learn science efficiently with the assistance of teachers.

How To Promote the Nature of Science

This article supports the need for teaching about the nature of science through research. This is important for a teacher to understand but more importantly if one believes that teaching th... See More

This article supports the need for teaching about the nature of science through research. This is important for a teacher to understand but more importantly if one believes that teaching the nature of science is important, these authors provide ideas for ways to incorporate and address nature of science in an elementary classroom. Five very specific suggestions are provided and would be helpful for the teacher who wants to develop the understanding of the nature of science in their students.

Review

This article highlights the importance of teaching the "nature of science." It contains key information such as how the media can play a vital role in the students' ideas about science as we... See More

This article highlights the importance of teaching the "nature of science." It contains key information such as how the media can play a vital role in the students' ideas about science as well as the actual school's science experiences (i.e. textbooks). Some students may believe that science never changes and that it is merely a procedure. They may not view science as a hands-on, inquiry-based subject. In the article, the teacher showed students how science can change by having them do inquiry based activities themselves. The teacher asked questions comparing their inquiry-based lesson how actual scientists "do science." This is something that we as educators need to realize : students will not fully understand what science is unless they actually do science. Students need to do hands-on activities so that they don't have the misconception that students had in this article about science never changing and being the same. The article also states that research has proven that just doing science is not enough; in depth discussions also need to take place in order for students to understand. During discussions, teachers should emphasize that science can be exciting by using creativity. In addition, the article states that educators must have a clear understanding of the specific content they are teaching and encourage students to write, draw, or discuss their own ideas about science and scientists. This article is a helpful reminder.

Science and the Need for Creativity

This article discusses the gap young students have in their understandings and comprehensions of what science entails. Researchers posed various questions to different groups of fourth and ... See More

This article discusses the gap young students have in their understandings and comprehensions of what science entails. Researchers posed various questions to different groups of fourth and fifth graders. They found that the majority of students believed that their textbooks contained “unchanging scientific truth and that science has little room for creativity…” (p. 64). Young students are continually bombarded by images from the media of science and scientists that promote misconceptions and myths about the nature of science. One example comes from an interview of fourth grade students who believed that science is based solely on what can be observed directly. Students also have misconceptions that scientists are always right and that science is not a continuum! According to the article, we constantly learn from the past and make educated guesses about the future. Science is ever changing. We are continually trying to disprove in order to prove an idea or theory. This dichotomy must be understood in order to promote the necessary creativity and imagination needed to invent explanations for phenomena that are not directly observed. Science is at a point where inference has become the backbone of understanding. When teaching the nature of science, modeling is not enough. It must become a “purposeful and explicit part of classroom lessons…for students to develop their understanding” (p. 64). Students need to grasp the idea that science is tentative. The answers scientists have now are based on past and present research and are considered reasonable yet cautious. This means that scientists understand that future research could disprove what is already known. Students tend to think that what is known is not going to change. This creates an enormous barrier to freethinking. It is important for students to understand that the science process never stops; thus, the nature of science.

NOS

I really enjoyed reading your post about the different misconceptions students have had about science - based on the way their teacher taught. It is extremely important for educators to be u... See More

I really enjoyed reading your post about the different misconceptions students have had about science - based on the way their teacher taught. It is extremely important for educators to be using multimodal instruction as well as different methods so that students' needs are being met. While teaching can be exhausting, putting the work in for your students makes them put in the work for you!