Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 16, Issue 1, Article 10 (Jun., 2015)
Feray KAHRAMAN and Faik Özgür KARATAŞ
Story telling: research and action to improve 6th grade students’ views about certain aspects of nature of science

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Introduction

The Nature of Science and History of Science in Science Education

Two of the most important factors that influence and shape today's life are science and technology. Many influential organizations, as well as government institutions, have declared science literacy as the main purpose of science education for all students (AAAS, 1993; MEB, 2005; NRC, 2012; NSTA, 1971; OECD, 2006). The nature of science (NOS) is considered a fundamental part of scientific literacy (Akerson, Abd-El-Khalick & Lederman, 2000; National Research Council (NRC), 2012). Thus, one of the central goals of science education is to develop students’ views of NOS (NRC, 2012). Accordingly, promoting a contemporary view of NOS has become one of the major goals of developed and developing countries all over the world (Akerson, Abd-El-Khalick & Lederman, 2000). Lederman (1992) explains NOS as understanding of beliefs and values that are embedded in​​ science, the ways to generate scientific knowledge, and the development of scientific knowledge.

Even though there is no one shared view of NOS, the following tenets are considered to be at the core of NOS and accepted by many science educators at the K-12 level (Lederman, Bell, Schwartz & Abd-el-Khalick, 2002).

Teaching these main tenets of NOS has become a very crucial aspect of school science. When the related literature is examined, it can be seen that there are three approaches that are mostly employed to teach NOS (Smith, 2010):

  • The Implicit Approach;
  • The Explicit (and Reflective) Approach;
  • The Historical Approach (explicit or implicit).

Implicit Approach: The advocates of this approach claim that students are able to develop a contemporary view of NOS while learning through inquiry by pretending to be scientists. In this process, students are expected to determine a problem; try to find an appropriate way to solve the problem; collect, analyze and interpret data; come up with a conclusion; redesign explorations; and lastly, form and revise theories (NRC, 1996). They should also share their results with their peers. However, related research has reported conflicting evidence regarding the effectiveness of the implicit approach (Khishfe & Abd-El-Khalick, 2002; Lederman, 1992). Ayvacı (2007), for example, reported that students rarely carry on the inquiry process well; and thus, they may be unable to gain insightful ideas regarding NOS. Similarly, Lederman (1992) claimed that an inquiry-based implicit approach was not effective for improving students’ understanding of NOS to a desired level. Khishfe and Abd-El-Khalick (2002) pointed out that students’ science process skills and science conceptions would be developed by an inquiry based science class, but not their NOS views, because students are often unclear about the learning aims of teaching activities related to NOS. In this sense, NOS understandings are cognitive instructional outcomes that should be intentionally targeted in teaching.

The Explicit and Reflective Approach: The explicit teaching of NOS advocates that teaching materials are purposefully designed to address each of the tenets of NOS that are mentioned above. Akerson and Hanuscin (2007) found that the explicit approach is a useful way to change students’ and elementary teachers’ views about NOS and to become more informed. Related comparative research has also shown that the implicit way of teaching NOS is less effective than an explicit approach (Akerson, Abd-El-Khalick, & Lederman, 2000). Khishfe and Abd-El-Khalick, (2002) reported that explicit and reflective approach is more effective than implicit approach to improve students’ views of NOS. They also pointed out that the reflective aspect of NOS teaching is crucial, since it provides opportunities for students to analyze the activities in which they are engaged from various perspectives (e.g., a NOS framework); maps connections between classroom activities and those undertaken by others (e.g., scientists); and draws generalizations about a domain of knowledge (e.g., epistemology of science).

Historical Approach: Another way of teaching the NOS that can be either implicit or explicit involves the History of Science (HOS). This approach, which will be further examined in this essay, focuses on the process of an activity that helps develop recognition of the process of scientific knowledge generation and scientific knowledge within the social and cultural context (Doğan & Özcan, 2010).                      

Background of the Study: Importance of HOS in Teaching NOS

According to socio-cultural theory, students would develop a better understanding about the culture of science, as well as how science and scientists work, if teachers utilize HOS while teaching science concepts that have also been found useful for teaching NOS (Abd-El Khalick, 2002; Güney & Şeker, 2012; Irwin, 2000). Solomon et al. (1992) also emphasized the importance of HOS while teaching NOS. The main argument for utilizing HOS is to help students learn how to interpret and appreciate scientific claims (theories, principles, models, or hypotheses) within their time and social structure (Kahraman, 2012). Students’ understanding of NOS was found to increase remarkably by utilizing HOS as well (Clough, 2009; Irwing, 2000; Kruse, 2010; McComas, 2008).

Students come to class with some prior conceptions and perceptions about everyday phenomena (Karataş, Ünal, Durland & Bodner 2013; Nakhleh, 1992; Orgill & Sutherland, 2008; Osborne, 1982; Palmer, 2001). Research has shown that historical development of scientific knowledge and students’ ideas have many commonalities (Monk & Osborne, 1997). In this respect, HOS provides students a chance to compare their ideas about natural phenomena with the historical development of ideas about those phenomena. Students can see that their ideas were accepted in history but changed according to concrete evidence. They might see flaws in their ideas and learn how to improve them by reflecting on HOS. This process can provide a valuable opportunity to illustrate the tentativeness of scientific knowledge to students. It can also be useful for teachers to learn more about students’ thinking (Rudge & Howe, 2009). Teachers might grasp ideas about students’ possible misunderstandings from HOS and consider these while planning their courses.

In addition, HOS might be utilized to depict the relationship between science and many issues in society, including personal, ethical, cultural and political concerns. For example, students can interpret scientific knowledge in the historical and social context with the help of HOS. This enables students to comprehend that scientific knowledge and theories that were seen as valid and reasonable in their period might be seen unduly as wrong or simple today. Furthermore, HOS might be useful to examine the humanist aspect of science with students (Klassen, 2007), because they may be curious about scientists’ social and cultural backgrounds and the influence of these factors on scientists’ thoughts and research. This might help students engage in science as part of their daily lives. Additionally, HOS may allow students to empathize with scientists and with the social environment associated with the scientific community (Doğan & Özcan, 2010); and HOS can be utilized to learn more about science, scientists, scientific knowledge, the scientific process and progress. Students may notice the evolution in our understanding of a phenomenon over a period of time, enabling them to understand more about the scientific process (Kim & Irving, 2010). Thus, learning HOS might help students to learn the story of scientific endeavor (Klassen, 2007).

HOS Based Stories in Teaching NOS

Several studies have reported that HOS is a useful and successful way to teach NOS (Irwin, 2000; Kim & Irving, 2010; Lin & Chen, 2002). One way of using HOS for teaching science is via stories, which are very effective tools for increasing students’ interest and motivation for science (Klassen, 2007). Stories play an important role in the culture of many civilizations, so teaching science lessons through stories can be an attractive learning tool for students. Stories are not just for fun or motivation. Klassen (2007), for example, asserted that stories are beneficial to developing problem solving, critical thinking, and inquiry skills. Students can think of themselves as the main character of a story and try to solve a problem. Students can also criticize the ideas of different characters in a story, helping them learn while having fun.

Stories that are based on HOS might also change students’ and teachers’ traditional roles in class. The characters of stories become a guide that enables the meaning-making process to become easier for students (Silva, Colleiva & Malachias, 2009). Thus, students may comprehend that science is made of multiple complicated concepts, theories, and laws. On the other hand, students may have a difficult time understanding science concepts within a given paradigm when they are not aware of the differences between the related predecessor and successor theories (Gericke & Hagberg, 2007). Through stories, students may be able to see the challenges and problems in scientific methods that they employed to better understand the phenomenon, as well as the inferences from the data and results in the course of history. In other words, through HOS, students may be able to better conceptualize the inquiry process (Singleton, 1997). Likewise, Hill and Baumgartner (2009) claimed that HOS-based stories are useful for organizing concepts in cognitive schema. In this respect, Renninger (2009) asserted that students were interested in HOS-based stories, and this motivated them to learn about science. Other researchers, including Kruse (2010) and Smith (2010), have also emphasized that HOS-based stories have positive effects on teaching NOS, as well as scientific content. Most of the reviewed studies about teaching NOS via HOS investigated the progress towards a more articulate view of NOS. In the light of the cited literature, HOS-based stories for the teaching of NOS were chosen as the main approach for carrying out this study.

The purpose of this study was to diagnose and improve 6th grade students' views of NOS. This study focuses specifically on a few aspects of NOS, including the tentative nature of scientific knowledge; subjectivity in science; and certain characteristics of scientists and their work environment.

Keeping this purpose in mind, the research questions that guided this study are as follows:

  •  How do stories about the history of science affect 6th grade students' views regarding the tentative nature of scientific knowledge?
  •  How are students’ views about the characteristics of scientists changed through the use of stories?
  •  How are students’ views about the work place in which scientists conduct scientific research changed?
  •  How are students’ views about the subjective nature of science changed through the use of stories?

 

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