• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.539-556
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to examine preservice secondary science teachers' understanding of the nature of science, by using nature of science (NOS) questionnaire on the basis of atomic model, and compare this to pre-studies. 'Understanding of nature of scientific model,' 'Tentativeness of scientific knowledge,' 'Subjectivity in science,' 'Use of inference and imagination,' 'Myths of the scientific method,' and 'Comparison between science and art.' were examined. Preservice teachers showed great comprehension of the tentativeness of scientific knowledge (the orbital model) and the subjectivity in science (the different interpretation about the experiment of particle scattering), but displayed the lowest comprehension of the scientific method. For understanding of nature of scientific model (the atomic model) and the comparison between science (Bohr's atomic model) and art (Picasso's work), preservice teachers brought out a combination of ontological and constructivist perspective and showed the contradictory thought about imagination in science research. In the result of comparison to pre-studies using the NOS instruments contains general terms, represented high levels of agreement about the tentativeness of scientific knowledge by using concrete examples of 'atomic model'. When concrete scientists such as Thomson, Rutherford, Bohr were presented, respondents revealed more informed views about the scientists' research method.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.150-158
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate the views of STS by science gifted and talented students. A multiple-choice format questionnaire HS-VOSTS was administered to 134 science gifted and talented students. We found that most of students had possessed the tentativeness of scientific knowledge. Science gifted and talented students mainly agreed that government should not control scientists' researches. Science gifted and talented students emphasized that scientists should consider the positive and negative influences of research products. There was no significant difference according to the gender in the view of science gifted and talented students on the definition of science, the external and internal sociology of science, and epistemology. This study would provide implication for the development of gifted students' program and curriculum.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.955-963
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• 2008

This study was conducted to assess any change in students' views on the nature of science (NOS) after lessons through the activities of model construction and pattern identification. The instrument used to examine NOS views was the Views of Nature of Science questionnaire (VNOS). Four students' responses on VNOS before and after instruction were analyzed. The two levels of their views, novice and expert, were judged by the authors based on criteria set by several science educators. The instruction consisted of six hours of the so-called black box and cube activities developed for model construction and pattern identification, respectively. Students' views were at the novice level in definition of scientific theory, tentativeness of scientific knowledge, difference of hypotheses, theories and laws, model construction, and creativity and imagination in experiments and investigations. Students' views on NOS knowledge such as model and theory have improved for two students after instruction. The improvement seemed to be due to an explicit approach using the activities of model construction and pattern identification. The factors of changes and no-changes of views on NOS were identified and discussed in terms of improvement of the views.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.206-217
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• 2010

This study aims to explore preservice teachers' overall views of nature of science and compare their views by gender and certificate area (biology vs. non-biology teachers). In addition, a comparison with American preservice teachers' views was also implemented. The Views of Nature of Science (Abd-El-Khalick, 1998), an openended questionnaire, is utilized to explore participants' views of nature of science. Along with 'definition of science', six aspects of the nature of science, (1) theories and laws, (2) tentativeness, (3) social and cultural embeddedness, (4) creativity, (5) theory-laden, and (6) inference, were investigated. The qualitative result indicates that the participants' first image of science was about the method of science such as observations and experiments. Furthermore, these preservice science teachers particularly have a difficulty in differentiating between scientific theories and laws, and understanding the importance of creation and imagination in developing scientific knowledge. In addition, compared to American preservice teachers' view of the nature of science, Korean preservice teachers possess naive views in creative and imaginative aspect. Interestingly, biology teachers demonstrated lower understanding in theories and laws as well as tentativeness of scientific knowledge. However, there is no difference by gender.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.378-385
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• 2012

In this study, the relationship between students' out-of-school science experience and their view on the nature of science was investigated. The participants were 267 sixth graders, 281 eighth graders, and 307 tenth graders from schools in Seoul. A test of views on the nature of science which consists of five items concerning the purpose of science, the definition of scientific theory, the nature of scientific model, the tentativeness of scientific theory, and the origin of scientific theory was administered. Students' out-of-school science experiences were measured with a subscale of the modified Science Experience Survey consisting of seven items. The results indicated that no statistically significant relationship was found between students' out-of-school science experience and their view on the nature of science in sixth graders. In eighth graders, high level students in terms of out-of-school science experiences were found to possess more contemporarily epistemological view in the item concerning the nature of scientific model but more falsificationist view in the item concerning the tentativeness of scientific theory. High level tenth graders in terms of out-of-school science experiences exhibited more epistemologically sophisticated understandings of the nature of science than their counterparts in the items concerning the purpose of science, the definition of scientific theory, and the nature of scientific model.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 1992

This study investigated 15 Postgraduate students' conception toward the nature of science and the changes of those conceptions through the course called 'Philosophy of Science and Science Education', And another 8 postgrauate students who took the course called 'Mathematical Physics' were also investigated for comparison. A survey questionnaire involving 9 items was developed and administered before and after the course to both groups. Individual interviews with students taking 'Philosophy of Science and Science Education' were carried out in a small scale for obtaining additional information about their background knowledge. The results of this study showed that the students' traditional views of philosophy of science including the objective observation and the inductive method were reduced after the course, 'Philosophy of Science and Science Education'. On the other hand. views of modem philosophy of science including the theory-laden observation, the tentativeness of scientific knowledge and science as human activities became more popular. It was also found that their conceptions towards Science were different according to their previous knowledges on the philosophy of science and their majors.

• Journal of the Korea Furniture Society
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2009

This research is conducted on temporary street furniture, which is one of the significant factors that comprise the street landscape in modem cities. The primary purpose of this research is to present the guidance on direction of planning by examining the design and installation types of construction and screen fences usually established at construction sites for buildings, roads, parks and etc. The results are as follows: 1. The construction and screen fences at construction sites of urban areas used to be a mere tentative facility to prevent noise and safety accidents but have now incremented their roles to serve not only as a functional but also as an aesthetic element with a city view and harmonization with other elements taken into consideration. In particular, it is noticeable that, based on its unique feature of tentativeness, its role has developed to serve as street furniture that adds variability to the modem city. 2. There are two different types of screen fences: blackout type and transparent type. The transparent screen turns out to be used a lot at the construction site of building a skyscraper or differentiated building in downtown city area or in places where there are buildings of similar types and shapes located along the street in the vicinity of the construction site. 3. The actual cases of adopting the tentative construction and screen fences all at the same time as a single unit have been found in historically and culturally significant architectures with the screen design used to demonstrate the view after completion of construction or the characteristics of the architecture.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.428-445
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• 2012

The objective of this study is developing an instrument for investigating views of the respondents on nature of science(NOS) by using experienced scientific knowledge, atomic model. It consists of total six questions and 36 detail items, and each question is reflected the aspects of different NOS which are 'recognition on the model', 'tentativeness of scientific knowledge', 'subjectivity in science', 'use of inference and imagination', 'myths of the scientific method', and 'comparison between science and art'. Particularly, 'comparison between science and art' is addressed almost for the first time in this questionnaire. In the class environment almost not to teach nature of science linking with concrete scientific knowledge, to inquire how the students recognize nature of science, relating to experienced scientific knowledge through this questionnaire will give the data of scientific knowledge based recognition on the nature of science and an important implication for nature of science teaching with concrete scientific knowledge. Developing processes have gone through four steps. In first step, we chose aspects of NOS and developed questions and details. In second step, we tested the draft into fifteen science teachers and, reflecting their opinions, corrected the form and contents of questionnaires. In third step, we tested the questionnaire included writing section for expressing thoughts of the respondents into 55 students in science high school and checked index of coincidence between Likert and open-ended responses which shows 88.2% degree of consensus. Furthermore, to identify the feature of using concrete scientific knowledge we applied this and views on science and education questionnaires together into six university students. We performed final test to 68 university students and measured Cronbach's, and ultimately completed final questionnaire in last step.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.221-239
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to explore how 9th grade students' understanding of the nature of science developed during a one-year implementation of NOS learning materials. The lessons were a combination of short readings in episodes in the history of science with accompaning response booklets consisting of illustrations and questions. The lessons were designed to be 45 minutes in length and were implemented over ten months of the school term. Data on students' understanding as it developed during the implementation were obtained from test items, questionnaires, and students' journal. Findings indicate that students showed changes in their understanding of the nature of science towards modern views of the nature of science. However, they showed understanding of tentativeness of scientific knowledge, they also showed belief of absoluteness of scientific knowledge.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.249-260
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• 2010

The main purpose of this study is to examine the effects of explicit instructions on the nature of science (NOS) on the understanding of science-gifted students. Participants were engaged in 8 explicit NOS instructions spanning 6 months. Data were collected before and after the instructions from 20 science-gifted students using student worksheets, open-ended questionnaires (Views of Nature Of Science, VNOS), and in-depth interviews. The results of this study showed that explicit instructions were helpful in improving the understanding of the tentativeness in science and socially and culturally embedded aspects of science. However, participants not only still possess naive views on the nature of science about the distinction of law and theory and the empirical aspects of science, but also had conflicting views and misconceptions in some areas. The study has implication for development of science-gifted program that the explicit instructions on NOS and science inquiry should be provided concurrently, given the complementary relationship of the two activities.