Explicit Nature of Science Instruction: An Effect on Nature of Science Understanding and Transfer

Abstract

Nature of Science (NOS) and transfer of scientific knowledge across contexts are two remarkable topics in science education. NOS is considered a basic component of students’ epistemologies in science and students’ scientific literacy. In addition, transfer of scientific knowledge is necessary for extrapolating scientific understanding from classroom into real life experiences. In fact, few research studies relate these two components (NOS and transfer). Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of explicit NOS instruction on: (a) students’ NOS understanding of subjective, empirical, and tentative aspects within a scientific context, and (b) students’ ability to transfer their NOS understanding of the three emphasized aspects from the scientific context into other scientific and socio-scientific contexts. The intervention was implemented with 54 students in grade 10 at a Lebanese public high school. Participants were enrolled in two sections (NOS group and non-NOS group) and were taught by the same chemistry teacher. The intervention lasted for about 6 weeks. One of the sections served as the NOS group, who received explicit NOS instruction of the emphasized NOS aspects within the unit (Atoms and Molecules). The other section served as the non-NOS group, who received implicit NOS instruction within the same unit. A qualitative method including open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews was adopted. The pre-post questionnaires included scientific (atoms and dinosaurs) and socio-scientific (genetically modified food and water fluoridation) topics. Each topic included three open open-ended questions examining the three empathized NOS aspects (subjective, empirical, and tentative). The participants’ responses in pre-post data related to “atoms” demonstrated their understanding of the NOS aspects. While their responses in “dinosaurs”, “genetically modified food” and “water fluoridation” topics revealed their ability to transfer their understanding of the emphasized NOS aspects into scientific and socio-scientific contexts. Results showed a remarkable improvement in the NOS group participants’ NOS understanding of the emphasized aspects. Moreover, the results showed little transfer of NOS understanding among these participants from atoms to dinosaurs compared to a remarkable transfer from the atoms to water fluoridation and genetically modified food. The study concluded with a discussion of these results in relation to learning and transfer, along with implications and recommendations.