This chapter provides several examples of early activation of a critical attitude during a discussion of questionable explanations. One concerns the use of the survival blanket to protect against the cold, a theme which leads to discussion of a compromise between two imperatives: that of returning as much energy as possible to oneself (by putting…

Written by a Polish-Russian scholar Tadeusz Zielinski, "Our Debt to Antiquity" (1903) was a successful attempt to combat the prejudiced view that classical education resists progress. Zielinski argued that Darwinian laws manifest themselves in his discipline in three aspects: (1) in the emergence of Greek and Latin languages as a result…

This study investigated the effect of explicit nature of science (NOS) instruction and explicit argumentation instruction in socioscientific and scientific contexts, on students' NOS conceptions and their argumentation skills. Undergraduate students enrolled in two sections of a science content course were assigned into two groups: Socioscientific…

As the vision in "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) takes hold in schools and classrooms, there is an urgent need for teacher professional development (PD) programs that align with NGSS-designed curriculum materials and address the unique strengths and needs of diverse student…

This article provides a metacommentary on the special issue on nature of science (NOS). The issue is composed of senior scholars discussing Hodson and Wong's (2017, this issue) critique of the consensus view of nature of science, which on a basic level states that there are agreed-upon aspects of science that can be taught in K-12 schools. Each…

If a small object is placed under the front leg of a chair, the chair tilts backwards. If the object is placed under a rear leg, the chair tilts sideways. The effect is surprising but can be analysed in terms of elementary physics.

Researchers have raised concerns about teachers' ability to embed nature of science (NOS) in their science instruction, a complicated situation that is certainly impacted by the availability of adequate resources to assist K-12 science teachers. In light of the implementation of the ideas from the "Framework for K-12 Science Education"…

How nature of scientific knowledge (NOSK) or nature of science (NOS) and scientific inquiry (SI) are contextualized, or related to each other, significantly impacts both curriculum and classroom practice, specifically with respect to the teaching and learning of NOSK. NOS and NOSK are considered synonymous here, with NOSK more accurately conveying…

The focus of this article is to expand María del Mar Aragón, José Antonio Acevedo-Díaz and Antonio García-Carmona's paper "Prospective Biology teachers' understanding of the nature of science through an analysis of the historical case of Semmelweis and childbed fever" by focusing on the discussion about teaching non-epistemic aspects of…

This article presents a qualitative study of the understanding of various epistemic and non-epistemic aspects of the nature of science (NOS), based on analysis of the historical case of Semmelweis and childbed fever. To this aim, an activity was designed which consisted of: (1) reading of a narrative of the case without instruction and discussion…

A versatile experiment is described for the high school and college laboratory setting based on the synthesis of biobased polymers prepared from inexpensive, renewable, and nonhazardous chemicals. Combinations of readily available citric acid, glycerol, and tapioca root starch are used to prepare three polymeric materials with different observable…

Teaching the periodic table is a central part of chemistry. This might involve memorizing the symbols of the elements, learning about the properties of the families, or understanding its general organization. This year, The International Year of the Periodic Table, marks its 150th anniversary, and represents a good opportunity to highlight its…

Concepts related to the nature of science (NOS) have been considered an important part of scientific literacy as reflected in its inclusion in curriculum documents. A significant amount of science education research has focused on improving learners' understanding of NOS. One approach that has often been advocated is an "explicit and…

In this article, we report on a three-pronged effort to create a hypothetical learning progression for quantification in science. First, we drew from history and philosophy of science to define the quantification competency and develop hypothetical levels of the learning progression. More specifically, the quantification competency refers to the…

As long has been known, there is no perfect way to teach science. This paper makes no claim to be the 'be-all and end-all' of science education. Rather it critically examines what we teach learners in science and what they learn and tries to offer suggestions that can help teachers to surmount the scholastic inadequacies they tend to encounter in…