1Third Misconceptions Seminar Proceedings (1993) Paper Title: Children’s ideas about the nature of science from age 9 to

Abstract: It has been argued that a knowledge of the nature of the scientific enterprise may be important for students (a) to better understand the status of the concepts that they are being taught; and (b) because the nature of the scientific enterprise is itself an important curriculum goal in developing a scientifically literate society. This cross-sectional study has been carried out to provide an initial map of the ideas that school students at different ages are likely to have about a number of features of the nature of science including: the purposes of science; the nature of theory, and its relationship to evidence; and science as an enterprise, and how it relates to society. A range of interview-based instruments were designed to probe students’ understanding of each of the features of interest. At least sixty students were interviewed in pairs at each of three ages (9, 12, 16). Responses were audiotaped and transcribed. Forms of reasoning were identified from the range of responses and used to code the transcribed interviews. This paper describes a number of the probes used, their administration and analysis. Broad trends in the results across ages from these probes are discussed and educational implications are identified