Considers what level of understanding of the nature of science students should experience to become both intelligent consumers of scientific information and effective citizens. Proposes that most precollege teachers should attempt to teach students how to use scientific descriptors to judge the relative merits of knowledge claims instead of…

Seeks to identify some of the issues associated with the role of models in scientific explanations. Develops a typology of explanations and explores the notion of appropriateness in scientific explanations. Investigates the nature of models and their contribution to explanations. (DDR)

Examines the beliefs and practices of a high school biology teacher who developed an inquiry-based learning environment. Studies the process of day-to-day instruction, and analyzes classroom lessons and field trips to answer the question, How does a teacher establish an inquiry based learning environment? (Contains 36 references.) (YDS)

Discusses the National Academy of Science's recommendations on teaching evolution and the nature of science. Describes a biology college course that uses evolution and history of life as the curriculum framework with an extensive unit on the history and philosophy of science. (Contains 14 references.) (ASK)

Comments in response to Pushkin's critique published in Science Education 2002, 86(2), p161-166 and reviews three aspects of the atheoretical nature of the National Science Education Standards (NSES) from the 1998 article in light of Pushkin's comments. (Author/YDS)

Describes a proposed middle school curriculum designed to coordinate the major subject areas around a single coherent story line and tell the epic tale of the development of formal intellectual culture from its distant origins to the present day. Ourstory explores the history of scientific culture from the perspective of foundational disciplines…

Examines four factors that may cause art therapists to reject the scientific method. Gives an overview of historical developments in science to provide a background for a discussion of each factor. Includes material from anthropology, psychoanalysis, and alternative health care. Offers suggestions for training art therapists in scientific…

Relates personal experiences conducting scientific research on the brain mechanisms of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Argues that solutions to scientific questions can come from strange sources. Contains 13 references. (WRM)

Describes the use of a creationist-derived lesson plan in a nonmajor zoology class to demonstrate students' grasp of scientific concepts and principles. (WRM)

Debates the paradoxical nature of claims about the emerging contributions of functional brain mapping. Examines the various ways that images are deployed and rejected and highlights an approach that provides insight into the current demarcation of imaging. (Contains 68 references.) (DDR)

Attempts to make explicit the recurrent tensions in debates about the purpose of science education and considers past frameworks for the aims of science education, arguing that no one element of the range of goals of science education should be over-emphasized at the expense of others. (Author/MM)

Discusses Newton's long struggle with the concepts of inertia and centrifugal force as an example of high-grade scientific thinking. Discusses the role of textbooks and how they largely emphasize memorization. Suggests that the historical approach can be more time-consuming than textbook-based teaching and that it requires a good understanding of…

Explores views held by pre-service and in-service teachers regarding the nature of science and technology, particularly the characteristics of science and technology, the aim of science and scientific research, the characteristics of scientific knowledge and scientific theories, and the relationship between science and technology. (Author/MM)

Describes a unique and ongoing collaboration involving a team of bilingual/multicultural teacher-educators, preservice teachers, teachers, students, and community members in an urban California elementary school. Uses critical ethnography as a framework and focuses on building an American garden house to show how, by drawing on participants' funds…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of science education courses on a group of Taiwanese inservice and preservice teachers' views toward the nature of science. There were two science education courses in the study; one was for 36 inservice teachers, while the other one was for 32 preservice teachers. Both of the courses included…