The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of an apprenticeship program on high school students' understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry. Data related to seventeen students' understanding of science and scientific inquiry were collected through open-ended questionnaires. Findings suggest that although engagement in authentic…

In this article, the authors consider whether children's trade books promote an authentic understanding of the nature of science. They begin by discussing the characteristics of the nature of science and then examine existing research in children's science books for evidence of the visibility of these features. They describe the problems…

Physics and chemistry programs at the secondary school level in France recommend introducing components of the history of science (HS). Emphasis is placed on a "cultural" dimension, which is poorly defined but essentially refers to elements of epistemological nature. Moreover, the few examples of activities based on HS suggested by the…

Knowledge about the nature of science has been advocated as an important component of science because it provides a framework on which the students can incorporate content knowledge. However, little empirical evidence has been provided that links nature of science knowledge with content knowledge. The purpose of this mixed method study was to…

Designing inquiry-based science lessons can be a challenge for secondary school teachers. In this study we evaluated the development of in-service teachers' lesson plans as they took part in a 10-month professional development course in Peru which engaged teachers in the design of inquiry-based lessons. At the beginning, most teachers designed…

"Cootie Genetics" is a hands-on, inquiry-based activity that enables students to learn the Mendelian laws of inheritance and gain an understanding of genetics principles and terminology. The activity begins with two true-breeding Cooties of the same species that exhibit five observable trait differences. Students observe the retention or…

Most biochemistry, genetics, cell biology, and molecular biology classes have extensive prerequisite or co-requisite requirements, often including introductory chemistry, introductory biology, and organic chemistry coursework. But what is the function of these prerequisites? While it seems logical that a basic understanding of biological and…

This article focuses on teacher professional development (TPD) in natural science through the 5E model as mediating artifact. The study was conducted in an upper secondary school, grounded in a school-based intervention research project. My contribution to the field of research on TPD is founded on the hypothesis that teachers would be best…

A survey and analysis of four major research paradigms--positivism, postpositivism, critical theory and constructivism--reveal that all have been applied effectively in recent theological inquiry. Although these paradigms might resemble worldviews to some extent, they are not so all-encompassing. Rather, they are essentially matrices of deeply…

The new Minnesota Case Study Collection is profiled, along with other examples. They complement the work of the HIPST Project in illustrating the aims of: (1) historically informed inquiry learning that fosters explicit NOS reflection, and (2) engagement with faithfully rendered samples of Whole Science.

This study compares the inquiry competence of the 8th-grade students participating in the science and environmental education program GLOBE in the Czech Republic with a sample of students of the same age not participating in the program from the Slovak and Czech Republics. Inquiry competence is analyzed as a set of variables representing students'…

Inquiry-based classroom is widely distributed in the school science based on its useful and effective instruction. Science teachers are key elements allowing students to have scientific inquiry. If teachers understand and imply inquiry-based learning into science classroom, students will learn science as scientific inquiry and understand nature of…

Background: Although teaching nature of science (NOS) has been continually emphasized in many major reform efforts in science education, researchers claim that students do not possess adequate views of NOS. Insufficient understanding of NOS can be associated with the ineffectiveness of curricular or instructional approaches. Consequently,…

This study aims to investigate the relationships among epistemological beliefs, metacognitive awareness, and nature of science (NOS). Participants were 45 preservice science teachers (PSTs) enrolled in two sections of Laboratory Application in Science II course in a university in Turkey. All of the participants were juniors with the same science…

I advance some novel arguments for the use of historical experiments in science education. After distinguishing three different types of historical experiments and their general purposes, I define "complementary experiments", which can recover lost scientific knowledge and extend what has been recovered. Complementary experiments can help science…