High School Students' Views about the Nature of Science: Results from Three Countries

Source abstract

During the last two decades, massive efforts have been directed at uncovering different science concepts held by school age students. This particular study focused on identifying high school students' views regarding the nature of science. Thirty‐two students were chosen from each of the following three countries: Canada, the United States, and Australia. Interviews were conducted with each student. The interview protocol contained the same core questions with an opportunity built in to allow both the student and the interviewer to seek clarification and extension as necessary. All of the interviews were audiotape recorded and transcribed. Some major differences and many commonalities were observed among the three groups of students. These results should be potentially useful to a wide range of science educators and curriculum developers in that one's ability to become scientifically literate is greatly impair ed when the nature of science is not completely understood.