• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.153-167
• /
• 2007

In this study, it is assumed that understanding the nature of science (NOS) would enhance students' performance of scientific inquiry in more authentic ways. The ultimate goal of this study is to suggest new models for developing scientific inquiry activities through understanding the NOS by linking the NOS with scientific inquiry. First, the various definitions and statements of the NOS are summarized, then the features of the developmental nature of scientific knowledge and the nature of scientific thinking based on the philosophy of science are reviewed, and finally a synthetic list of the elements of the NOS is proposed, consisting of three categories: the nature of scientific knowledge, the nature of scientific inquiry, and the nature of scientific thinking. This suggested synthetic list of the NOS is used to suggest a model of scientific inquiry through the understanding of the NOS. This list was designed to provide basic standards regarding the NOS as well as practical guidance for designing activities to improve students' understanding of the NOS.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.100-107
• /
• 2003

The purpose of this study is to assess gifted students' conceptions about nature of science (NOS). Scientifically gifted students who are expected to be professionals in the future should possess an adequate understanding of NOS that if firm foundation for scientific career. 47 volunteers from the 8th grade gifted science program in Seoul National University Gifted Education Center participated to answer questions inquiring NOS conceptions. Their answers were analyzed and compared to different groups such as non-gifted students and younger gifted students. As a result, gifted students' understanding of NOS appeared to surpass that of non-gifted students in many aspects and it seemed that gifted students formed their NOS view in early ages. The relative weakness in their NOS conceptions was found in understanding of scientific enterprise. Their strong misunderstanding about obstacles that minority people would face in scientific enterprise was noticed, too. They admitted that there has been discrimination in scientific enterprise, but they wrongly believed that outstanding scientists cannot be affected by it. Further studies will be required to probe more.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.28 no.7
• /
• pp.759-767
• /
• 2008

This article arose from the previous studies, which suggested a synthetic list for the nature of science (NOS), discussed the relationship between the NOS and scientific inquiry and the development of the NOS in the context of scientific inquiry. In this article, for teaching scientific inquiry through the NOS, I proposed three teaching models - reflection, interaction, and the direct model -. Within these teaching models, understanding the NOS is viewed as a prerequisite condition for the improved performance of scientific inquiry. In the reflection model, the NOS is embedded and reflected in scientific inquiry without explicit introduction or direct explanation of the NOS. In the interaction model, concrete interaction between scientific inquiry and the NOS is encouraged during the process of scientific inquiry. In the direct model, subsequent to directly comprehending the NOS at the first stage of activity, students conduct scientific inquiry based on their understanding of the NOS. The intention of this present article is to facilitate the use of these models to develop teaching materials for more authentic scientific inquiry.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.314-328
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine Korean preservice science teachers' understanding of the nature of science (NOS). Thirty-one Korean preservice teachers were given an open-ended questionnaire about their understanding of NOS. The Korean preservice teachers' responses were categorized according to pattern and theme. These findings will provide information to aid in the development of curriculum and instruction to improve preservice teachers' understanding of NOS. Compared to in previous studies, Korean preservice teachers demonstrated various philosophical stances that have been suggested by philosophers of science. In addition, they were more likely to connect science to human endeavors and social needs. These results were interpreted in relation to the influence of the science methods course, secondary science curriculum, and the traditional cultural view.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.140-146
• /
• 2002

We have studied 73 pre-service science teachers' conceptions about the nature of science (NOS) using 120 true-false test items based on AAAS Benchmarks statements. We have found that participants have inadequate understanding of the NOS, especially in understanding of five categories of conceptions; change and continuity in science, bias in scientific investigations, hypothesis in scientific investigations, things common in science, and science ethics. The result also indicates that there is a difference between primary pre-service teachers and secondary pre-service teachers. From the analysis of consistency, we also found that this inadequate understanding comes from confusion rather than misconception. All the results support that there is a need of intense pre-service teacher education concerning thenature of science.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.93-99
• /
• 2003

The purpose of this study was to develop a new test instrument based on AAAS Benchmarks for Science Literacy, to assess k-12 students' progress in understanding nature of science (NOS). A total of 276 items were developed including 33 items for grade k-2, 36 items for grade 3-5, 78 items for grade 6-8 and 129 items for grade 9-12 and they were reviewed for validity and reliability. Key ideas that were the foundation of test items were extended, sophisticated and enriched according to the grade level. The general score of this test represents a student's cognitive state about an understanding of NOS. The result of this test can be expected to give some useful information for follow-up investigations, improving instructional design, and conducting further studies.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.184-192
• /
• 2009

Understanding about the Nature of Science (NOS) is element of scientific literacy. Its importance is emphasized, especially understanding about NOS was presented as goal of science education on the fifth curriculum in Korea. Attempt of teaching NOS has been continuous in school, that was limited by method of using History of Science. Except method of using History of Science, Experimenting is appropriate for method of teaching NOS. We expected that is effective to apply reflective approach method for understanding the NOS and composite lesson to emphasize reflection and discussion to general experiment class in the school. We applied experiment class to emphasize reflection and discussion to second grade students in the middle school and researched whether positive reflection and discussion is helpful understanding the NOS in science experiment class or not, through questionnaire about NOS and analysis of observation and interview. As a result, experiment class to emphasize reflection and discussion was effective for scientific inquiry skills and sociality of scientific inquiry, particularly for relation observation with deduction and possibility of variable analysis to experiment result. Therefore, experiment class to emphasize reflection and discussion is effective for understanding the NOS.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.60-79
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this study was to develop a program for the history of science and technology in order for the technical high school students to understand the nature of science (NOS). The program was composed of the six topics based on the textbooks such as convergence science and physics I, and was taught to 290 10th graders at a technical high school located in the metropolitan area. The questionnaire about NOS was asked the students before and after the instruction, so as to investigate the effect of the program on improving their understandings of NOS. The analysis followed t-test and ANOVA using SPSS 23.0 for Windows program. The questionnaire based on the conceptual framework of the four themes of the NOS (Lee, 2014). The research findings were as follows. First, the program was effective in improving their understanding of NOS since the t-test result was significant statistically for the overall domains of NOS (p<.01). Second, there was no significant gender differences in the understanding of NOS among technical high school students (p<.05), neither did their majors (p<.05). Third, all domains in NOS were statistically correlated (p<.01), and in a particular, each domain was consistently correlated with the aspect of the nature of the interactions among science, technology, and society. Hence, the further studies should be conducted to examine how the history of science and technology effects the understanding of the NOS and how the domains in NOS affected each other.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.43 no.3
• /
• pp.191-207
• /
• 2023

In this study, we comprehensively investigated the cases of science teachers who implemented NOS assessments in Science Inquiry Experiment. Two science teachers working at high schools located in Seoul who taught and assessed NOS in Science Inquiry Experiment according to the 2015 revised curriculum participated in the study. We collected lesson and assessment materials and observed NOS lessons and assessments. We also conducted interviews. Based on the collected data, we analyzed the processes of the teachers' NOS assessments. The analyses of the results revealed that the teachers constructed the assessments by themselves due to a lack of NOS assessment experience and related materials. They had difficulties in selecting an appropriate assessment method and constructing assessment questions and criteria. Both teachers found it difficult to assess an understanding of NOS because it concerns the subjective views of individual students. Therefore, they had difficulties in setting detailed assessment criteria, which also led to difficulties in the overall assessment process. There was a difference in the reflective level of the assessments between the two teachers. In the reflective activities of low levels, the assessments were not properly enacted because it was difficult to infer students' understanding. Orientation toward teaching NOS influenced the perceptions of NOS assessment and overall lessons, resulting in a difference in NOS assessments. Finally, the absolute evaluation of Science Inquiry Experiment also affected teachers' NOS assessments. Based on the above results, implications for effective NOS assessments in schools are discussed.

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