Nature of science (NOS) is now a well-established focus of science education and a key element in defining scientific literacy. In recent years, a particular specification of NOS, often described as "the consensus view," has become very influential and has gained ready acceptance in many countries around the world as a template for…

Science education can build a bridge between research carried out by scientists and relevant learning opportunities for students. The Broader Impact requirements for scientists by funding agencies facilitate this connection. We propose and test a model curriculum development process in which scientists, curriculum developers, and classroom…

Integrating faith with academics possesses significant benefits for students, because it connects major disciplines to students' personal values and goals, prepares students to be effective and faithful professionals in their discipline and vocation, and develops students' understanding of the nature of their discipline. However, to…

This paper reports on an attempt to investigate Turkish primary school students' interest in science by using their self-generated questions. We investigated students' interest in science by analyzing 1704 self-generated science-related questions. Among them, 826 questions were submitted to a popular science magazine called Science and Children.…

Traditional school science instruction has been largely unsuccessful in reaching diverse student groups and students from, in particular, underrepresented backgrounds. This paper presents a case study of an urban, dual-language middle school classroom in which the teacher used an alternative instructional approach, involving her students in an…

With the support of a grant from the Sloan Foundation, nine computer scientists from liberal arts colleges came together in October, 1984 to form the Liberal Arts Computer Science Consortium (LACS) and to create a model curriculum appropriate for liberal arts colleges. Over the years the membership has grown and changed, but the focus has remained…

The purpose of this study was to understand how Thai scientists from four disciplines viewed nature of science (NOS). The sixteen participating scientists were chosen from the areas of chemistry, physics, biology/life sciences, and geology/earth sciences and were separated into novice and expert groups. The scientists' understandings about NOS…

Argues that the British national curriculum has made science exciting for students aged 5-16 and that future development should be informed much more explicitly by the underpinning rationale and philosophy of the subject. (DDR)

This paper documents a pilot study designed to explore the ideas of high school students regarding the nature and role of theories, an aspect of the nature of science (NOS) that continues to be problematic for students, teachers, and the general public. Although there is a much greater emphasis on the nature of science in standards documents,…