How did a science camp affect children’s conceptions of science?

Achieving scientific literacy has been stated as the most permanent and desirable intent of science education. Scientifically literate individuals not only understand and use scientific process skills, but also make sense of the epistemological values behind these scientific processes, hence nature of science (NOS). Epistemological values of science refers to some underlying assumptions which provide opportunities for deep understanding about what science is, how science is done, what the process of doing science is, what are the criteria to be accepted as scientific as well as understanding scientific content knowledge. Thus, the ability to comprehend science with its underlying assumptions in its inherent nature is the main and permanent requirement of being scientific literate.

Although there have been no common conception about NOS among science educators and philosophers of science (Abd-El-Khalick, Bell, and Lederman, 1998), NOS can be defined as values and beliefs inherent to scientific knowledge, and philosophical underpinnings of scientific activities (Lederman, 1992; Lederman, 2007). Thus, the NOS is very complex epistemological and constantly developing issue about science. However, there are some particular aspects of NOS that are seen comprehensible for elementary students (Akerson & Abd-El-Khalick, 2005; Lederman, 2007). These aspects of NOS corresponding to elementary level are related to understanding such as scientific knowledge is subject to change (tentative), is based on evidence and data derived from observation of the natural world (empirically based), is subjective or theory laden (influenced by the socio-cultural context scientists came from and scientist’s theoretical background), requires and involves creativity and imagination when it is necessary, and is embedded in social and cultural context where it is constructed (Lederman, 2007; Khishfe, 2008). Accordingly, understanding of these aspects of NOS is parallel to comprehending what science is. Thus, in the case of science education, detecting students’ existing conceptions of science provides meaningful clue for science educators in order to design appropriate instruction for their students.

Previously, science educators interested in searching children’s definitions of science in 1990’s and have shifted toward understanding NOS in recent years. This orientation toward NOS facilitates the understanding of science in a more holistic manner and also provides opportunities for students to understand the relationships between aspects of science which seem to be separate and independent from each other. Indeed, NOS is more general than definition of science since it reflects multidimensional structure of science including epistemological, philosophical, historical, social, and cultural perspectives.

However, the consistent and well-documented evidence regarding students’ understanding of NOS have shown that students have inadequate and inappropriate understanding about NOS regardless of their grade levels (Lederman, 1992; Lederman, 2007). Additionally, there are some studies which directly focused on students’ specific definitions of science. This type of studies provides information about students’ explanations of science in general perspective and facilitates the understanding what science corresponds to in their minds. Likewise, Kang, Scharmann and Noh (2005) stated that investigating and knowing what students think science is, therefore, will help us gain a more comprehensive understanding of students’ views of NOS.

Most of the studies in the literature regarding children’s conceptions of science focused generally on determining children’s existing ideas about science. The participants of these studies ranged from 4th to 12th grades. BouJaoude and Abd-El Khalick (1995) searched Lebanese middle school students’ definitions of science and perception of its purpose and usage by applying questionnaire and semi-structured interviews with 80 middle school students from two private and two public schools. Two of their questions were about students’ definition of science and its purpose. Most of the students’ definitions stressed science as school related activities. For example, sixty-four of them defined science as ‘subject that gives information about humans, animals, plants, earth, the sky, and the stars. Thirty-five percent of them defined science as ‘subject matter divided into other subjects such as physics, chemistry, and biology’. Eighteen percent of them defined science ‘as a method of doing things’ and ‘a school subject to teach new things’. Sixteen percent of them defined science as ‘a subject that enlightens and gives the truth about nature’. Ten percent of them defined science as ‘a subject we studied in class’. Regarding purpose of science, they reported that students stated six main purposes of science (in the order of decreasing in frequency) as academic preparation, preparation for future carriers, achieving higher social status, helping people solve everyday problems, discovering new things, helping people to appreciate and understand nature. They concluded that Lebanese middle school students, like middle school students in the U.S., seem to have a restricted view of science. Most of them defined science as academic subject and perceived its purpose as preparation for higher grades, higher studies and carriers.

Likewise, Kang, Scharmann and Noh (2005) in their cross-age study, examined students’ views on five constructs concerning purpose of science, definition of scientific theory, nature of models, tentativeness of scientific theory, and origin of scientific theory. They found the majority of students, regardless of their grade level, thought that science is an activity concerned with making the world a better place to live in. Additionally, particular percent of the students selected item stated that science makes new discoveries and adds them to the knowledge of the nature. The result of this study also showed that there were no clear differences in the distributions of 6th, 8th, and 10th graders’ views of science.

In other study, Sutherland and Dennick (2002) investigated the influence of students’ different world-views associated with their cultural background on their perceptions of science. They used both qualitative (open-ended questions and interviews) and quantitative (a Likert-scale questionnaire) instruments to explore students’ views of science. Thirty-six 7th grade Euro-Canadian and 72 7th grade Cree students participated to the study. In accordance with the other studies, the result of this study showed that most of the students regardless of their background considered science as a body of knowledge. Similarly, most of the students of both groups thought that the main purpose of doing experiment in science was finding out and figuring out something.

Another similar study seeking change in children’s conception of science through school years was conducted in Australia by Stein & McRobbie (1997). They applied a phenomenological study with 151 students at grade 4, 7, 9, and 11-12. They raised six categories to organize students’ conception of science into six categories and compare students’ conception at different grades to find out the change in students’ conceptions throughout schooling. Grade 7 data were comparable to this study. Seventh graders defined science as what is done or learnt at school (Category 1, 60%), a consumable product (Category 1, 60%), a study of the world (Category 3, 70%), a process (Category 4, 58%), a dynamic knowledge (Category 5, 0%), and being influenced by social context (Category 6, 0%). They interpreted categories 1-3 to be related to self and categories 4-6 as categories as more general and detached to self. The researchers stated that categories 5 (science is a dynamic knowledge) and category 6 (science is influenced by social context) were more complex level than categories 1, 2, 3, and 4, because category 5 and 6 were multidimensional and pointed out that aspects of influences, changeability, and progress. Maybe because of that, students from the younger grades (4th and 7th) did not propose such ideas. This category represented students’ ideas from upper grades (9th and 11th).

There were also some studies which concentrated on change in students’ conception of science as a result of intervention. Carey, Evans, Honda, Jay, and Unger (1989) studied whether there were change in 76 7th grade students’ understanding of the nature and purpose of scientific inquiry as a result of three-week NOS unit intervention. They conducted half-hour clinical interviews with students to explore their understanding about the nature of scientific knowledge and inquiry. Researchers reported that students were not able to efficiently articulate the purpose of science in their initial understandings. Students who participated to this study thought that the goal of science was to discover new things, to find new cures for diseases. They also thought that scientists make research in order to discover facts about nature by making observation and trying things out. Additionally, according to these students scientific knowledge is a faithful copy of the world. As a result of short classroom-based intervention, researchers found statistical significant intervention impact on the students’ understanding. Over half of the students realized the main role of experiment in science as test of scientific ideas. They also realized that scientific activities are guided by particular ideas and questions.

Studies in Turkey were scarce. Recent studies on NOS provided some insights about children’s definitions of science, because instruments widely used in NOS research includes an item asking what science is. Celikdemir (2006) studied 1026 6th and 923 8th graders through a written instrument. One of the questions was related to students’ definition of science. One of them was stated to be taken from VOSTS (Aikenhead, Fleming and Ryan, 1987) and asking directly what science is and providing 10 options. Their results reported as grand totals of both 6th and 8th graders were summarized here, since we thought that grand totals were comparable to our study which includes children from 6th and 7th grades. According to their results, definition of science as exploring the unknown and discovering new things about our world and universe (alternative C) was the most common chosen option among students (24.5%). Definition of science indicating the social aspect of science as finding and using knowledge to make the world a better place to live in (alternative F) received 17.1% of the responses. Third common response was definition of science as a study of fields such as biology, chemistry, and physics (alternative A) (15.6%). Fourth common response was the definition of science as a body of knowledge such as principles, laws and theories, which explain the world around us (alternative B) (12.9%). Technology-based definition of science as inventing or designing things (alternative E) was chosen by 10.9% of the students. It was interesting that definition of science as carrying out experiments to solve problems of interest about the world around us (alternative D) was less common (6.5%) among student responses. Similarly, 6.4% of the students defined science as an organization of people (called scientists) who have ideas and techniques for discovering new knowledge (alternative G). Other three options were scarce. They concluded that most of the students had contemporarily accepted view on the definition of science which defines science as investigating new things and explaining the working of the world.

A similar study was performed by Doğan Bora (2005) with 10th grade students and their teachers. The Views on Science-Technology-Society (VOSTS) questionnaire (Aikenhead, Fleming and Ryan, 1987) and interviews were conducted in this study. The result of the study revealed that 10th grade students had traditional views about science. Similar to other result, most of the students selected the VOSTS item which expresses science as finding and using knowledge to make the world a better place to live in. They also defined science as exploring new things.

Accordingly, the result of these studies showed that students’ conception of science were diverse, nevertheless, they do not have desirable understanding about science regardless of their grade levels. In general, they considered science either as ‘exploring the unknown and discovering new things about our world and universe’ or as subject that gives information about our world and universe. Thus, students were not able to clearly articulate science as a process by which scientists have an attempt for conceptualizing our world and universe in general and making meaning about their dynamics.