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http://dx.doi.org/10.5467/JKESS.2008.29.1.091

A Preliminary Study on High School Students' Understanding of the Distinction between Scientific Theories and Scientific Laws  

Lee, Eun-Ah (BK21 SENS, College of Education, Seoul National University)
Park, Byeong-Geon (Joongdong High School)
Publication Information
Journal of the Korean earth science society / v.29, no.1, 2008 , pp. 91-97 More about this Journal
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to explore high school students' understanding of the distinction between scientific theories and scientific laws. Understanding of the distinction between these two concepts, which belong to the nature of science, has been receiving little attention. We surveyed thirty-two students from a local high school with three-part, open-ended questionnaire. The result revealed that these students shared common misconceptions such as 'scientific theories are unproven, scientific laws are proven and absolute', and 'if a theory is proven with enough evidence, it becomes a law'. Moreover, students tend to regard earth science less sophisticated than physical science, because they recognize a lot of its theories to be unproven in their view. It is indicated further that teaching the difference between scientific theories and laws explicitly could help students possess more appropriate view toward earth science.
Keywords
scientific theories; scientific laws; nature of science; earth science education;
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