Developing an adequate understanding of the nature of science includes developing an understanding of the uses and importance of models in science. General accounts of science aimed at university students, however, tend to neglect this aspect. A noticeable exception is the simple model of the key elements of a scientific result presented by Giere,…

The notion of family resemblance has recently emerged as a promising and fruitful approach to characterising the nature of science (NOS) in science education research, offering solutions to some perplexing challenges such as capturing both the domain-general and domain-specific features of science with a single framework. At the same time,…

This study aimed to investigate how argument-driven inquiry (ADI) activities impact pre-service teachers' views of the nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI), with a specific focus on climate change. To this end, an ADI approach was used to teach climate change, where the aspects of NOSI were explicitly taught. A sample of 24 pre-service teachers…

An important goal of science education is for students to understand the nature of science. Science education has raised the question of what science is, how scientific knowledge is developed and how people participate in this process under the conceptual umbrella of 'nature of science' (NOS). This study aims to look at the effectiveness of the…

We explored the potential for addressing nature of science through a historic narrative about disagreement between researchers concerning a socio-scientific issue, incidence of juvenile thyroid cancer following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. The narrative was developed from authentic sources and tested in two cycles. Eight groups of three…

Scientific evidence-based reasoning has been recognized as a form of reasoning that characterizes scientific thinking. This study questioned what scientific evidence means in the various types of scientific activities; that is, this study explored the nature of scientific evidence (NOSE). To do this, previous studies were examined to understand…

The ability to make evidence-based decisions, and hence to reason on questions concerning scientific and societal aspects, is a crucial goal in science education and science communication. However, science denial poses a constant challenge for society and education. "Controversial science issues" (CSI) encompass scientific knowledge…

The study consisted of three articles. Article one aimed to determine if there were any significant difference in science graduate students' (SGSs') conceptions of the "consensus tenets" of the nature of science (NOS) with respect to demographic factors -- the SGSs' academic and research characteristics. The participants were SGSs from…

Knowledge building dynamics are central to scientific communities and involve dialog, debate, inquiry, and contested reasoning. Refining and developing knowledge is an oft missing dynamic in precollege educational programs. Practical reasoning and human decision making are essential epistemic and social dynamics in knowledge-building struggles and…

Evolutionary evidence is important scientific background for appreciating the theory of evolution. We describe a STEAM-based lesson plan that uses paleontological drawings and a modern evolutionary database to explore and understand fossil, morphological, and molecular evidence. Together, with a focus on arthropods and the Cambrian explosion,…

We briefly discuss the philosophical basis of science, causality, and scientific evidence, by introducing the hidden but most fundamental principle of science: the similarity principle. The principle's use in scientific discovery is illustrated with Simpson's paradox and other examples. In discussing the value of null hypothesis statistical…

The discovery of and research into penicillin resistance by Sir Edward Abraham and Sir Ernst Chain can be used to teach the concept of natural selection and also multiple nature of science (NOS) objectives associated with Next Generation Science Standards, such as "scientific knowledge is based on empirical evidence" and "science is…

The argument that the second law of thermodynamics contradicts the theory of evolution has recently been revived by anti-evolutionists. In its basic form, the argument asserts that whereas evolution implies that there has been an increase in biological complexity over time, the second law, a fundamental principle of physics, shows this to be…

This article presents a unit of study in which students examine skeletons and draw conclusions from the evidence they find in a simulated mass grave. The activity involves the foundation of forensic anthropology--interpreting the structure of skeletal remains to determine sex, age, height, and possible cause of death. Working through a series of…

Helping students understand that the scientific community's claims change through time, sometimes radically, allows them to develop a well-grounded sense of the "nature of science." Learning to reason about how scientific claims come to be accepted, and later refuted, is important for understanding the tentative nature of scientific…