Taiwanese gifted students' views of nature of science

School Science and Mathematics, Mar 2002 by Lederman, Shiang-Yao Liu Norman G

This study examined the conceptions of nature of science (NOS) possessed by a group of gifted seventh-grade students from Taiwan. The students were engaged in a 1-week science camp with emphasis on scientific inquiry and NOS. A Chinese version of a NOS questionnaire was developed, specifically addressing the context of Chinese culture, to assess students' views on the development of scientific knowledge. Pretest results indicated that the majority of participants had a basic understanding of the tentative, subjective, empirical, and socially and culturally embedded aspects of NOS. Some conflicting views and misconceptions held by the participants are discussed. There were no significant changes in students' views of NOS after instruction, possibly due to time limitations and a ceiling effect. The relationship between students' cultural values and development of NOS conceptions and the impact of NOS knowledge on students' science learning are worth further investigation.

The preparation of scientifically literate students is a central goal of science education (American Association for the Advancement of Science [AAAS], 1990, 1993). Furthermore, an adequate understanding of nature of science (NOS) is an important component of scientific literacy that has been widely agreed upon by scientists, science educators, and science education organizations (Abd-El-Khalick,Bell, &Lederman, 1998). Therefore, an emphasis on helping students develop adequate understandings of NOS has recently been the theme of reform for science education in many western countries (McComas & Olson, 1998). However, research findings have consistently indicated that students' NOS views are not compatible with contemporary conceptions of the scientific enterprise (Duschl, 1990; Lederman, 1992).

In an attempt to mitigate this state of affairs, research efforts have focused on finding effective approaches to teaching NOS. In a comprehensive review ofthe literature, Abd-El-Khalick and Lederman (2000a) concluded that an explicit instructional approach that considers understanding of NOS as a "cognitive" learning outcome is relatively more effective than implicit instruction in enhancing learners' NOS views. An explicit approach, unlike didactic teaching, essentially emphasizes student reflection on certain aspects of NOS with respect to the activities in which they are engaged. Aspects of NOS are made "visible" in the classroom through discussion.

NOS commonly refers to the values and assumptions inherent to the development of scientific knowledge (Lederman, 1992). At a developmentally reasonable level of generality, seven NOS aspects have been characterized as accessible and important to K-12 students (Abd-El-Khalick, et al., 1998). These aspects are that scientific knowledge is tentative, empirically based, subjective, partially based on human inference, imagination, and creativity, and socially and culturally embedded. Two additional aspects are the distinction between observation and inference, and the function of and relationship between scientific theories and laws.

The educational reform in Taiwan has been influenced by many research studies in western cultural settings. Although some efforts have been dedicated to exploring Taiwanese students' views of NOS (e.g., Lin, 1998; Tsai, 1998), little attention has been given to discussing the influence of the students' social and cultural backgrounds on these views. One important aspect of NOS is social and cultural embeddedness, which emphasizes the human aspects of science, and the concept that science is "personally constructed and culturally bound explanations of the natural world (NCSESA, 1992)" (Stanley & Brickhouse, 1994). Although there have been some debates regarding multicultural accounts of NOS, the general issue confronting science educators is the need to consider what views of science ought to be taught (Atwater & Riley, 1993; Hodson, 1993; Ogawa, 1995; Stanley & Brickhouse, 1994).

Essentially, mainstream (or Western) science has dominated science curricula in Taiwan. However, as science educators interested in multicultural issues have reflected, studies in the history of medicine, astronomy, and technology have embraced the contribution of Chinese scientific achievements (Hodson, 1993). Although these achievements are not formally written in science textbooks, students in Taiwan learn about this Chinese science (or technology) by studying Chinese history and literature. Moreover, traditional professional practices, such as acupuncture and herbal medicine, are deeply infused into their daily lives. Of interest to the researchers is how formal and informal science-related instruction and information affect students' perceptions about science. Exploring students' views of NOS and science as inquiry under such different sociocultural practices may provide valuable information for curriculum development and instructional approaches in local cultural settings.

This investigation examines the conceptions of NOS possessed by students with a non-Western sociocultural background during an international cooperative project. The participants were a group of gifted students from Taiwan engaged in scientific inquiry activities and explicit NOS instruction at a mid-size university in the United States. Their views of NOS were compared before and after a 1-week science camp. The purpose of this study was to assess students' initial views of NOS and any changes in these views after explicit NOS instruction. Specifically, two research questions guided this investigation: (a) What are Taiwanese students' conceptions of nature of science? (b) Do the participants, after completing a 1-week science camp with inquiry-based instruction and explicit teaching of NOS, have better understandings of those defined aspects of NOS?