Practicing scientists' views of science recently have become a topic of interest to nature of science researchers. Using an interview protocol developed by Carey and Smith that assumes respondents' views cohere into a single belief system, we asked 15 research chemists to discuss their views of theories and experimentation. Respondents expressed a…

This article explores the relation between how scientific knowledge is created and the reasoning involved in learning content with understanding. Although an asserted parallel between these underpins reform, little is actually known about this relation. This article offers a model of this relation that draws coherent connections between the…

This paper discusses the traditional lecture-based instruction method. Strong experimental evidence suggests that social context affects knowledge construction and depends on prior knowledge. Engagement in the inquiry process using constructivist viewpoints can make the characteristics of science, scientific knowledge, and scientific method easy…

Examines the role played by metaphor in supporting and conditioning thinking about theoretical models of learning in science education. With special reference to von Glasersfeld's theory of radical constructivism, suggests that much of the controversy appearing in the academic discussion of this theory stems from the injudicious use of metaphors…

In the Discover Lab, a science education center at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, students learn to investigate, critique, and test big scientific questions and devise their own answers. Students are guided through cyclical processes of inquiry, logic and reasoning, testing and experimentation, and communication. (MLH)