Shifting From Declaration To Understanding By Using A Three-Concept Nos Model

This study is a research plan developed by the three science teacher candidates in the secondary education MAT program. The study will be implemented in fall 2019 during the candidates\u27 student teaching. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of utilizing historical and contemporary case studies on students\u27 understanding of the nature of science (NOS) and the acquisition of science concepts. The study will practice an interrelated three-concept NOS model, empirical observations, inferential explanations, and subjective process of science, in the context of historical and contemporary case studies. When we carefully analyze how scientists have developed scientific theories or laws, and how they revised them throughout the history, we will note that they have always started with empirical observations and then made inferential explanations. In light of existing scientific theories, laws, hypotheses, or facts, scientists generate questions to guide their observations through which they collect either quantitative or qualitative data. Scientists use data-driven evidence to support their answers to the questions. Hence, a set of empirical observations is essential. Besides, they also attempt to explain how and why facts or laws work concerning the part of a phenomenon which is not accessible to our senses. This attempt is called inferential explanation, and it leads to the construction of scientific theories. Both scientific theories and laws are subject to change with new technology, evidence, and perspectives. Scientists are human beings and hold specific cultural and social values, mindsets, prior knowledge, previous experiences, interests, skills, so forth. Furthermore, they use their creativity and imagination at all levels of scientific knowledge construction process. All of these aforementioned human qualities influence how a scientist executes empirical observations and explains how and why his/her observational statements work. This fact establishes that science is a subjective process. In this study, we will use the three-concept NOS model along with three historical and five contemporary case studies. To evaluate students\u27 understanding of NOS concepts, the historical case studies, each has five open-ended questions addressing the NOS concepts, will be implemented before and after a two-week intervention program. We will, in students\u27 answers, look for evidential facts which will indicate students\u27 ability to analyze each case and use the historical information to explain how scientists develop scientific knowledge. Five contemporary case studies will be used to teach content and NOS concepts explicitly. The contemporary cases will be about recent scientific developments or issues such as global warming, genetically modified food production, human health, environmental change, stem cell study, and cloning human cells. In each case, there will be reflection questions to discuss related concepts and NOS concepts. The case studies will help students move beyond just declaring the NOS concepts as explaining them using historical and present knowledge. We anticipate analyzing the data in spring 2020 and presenting the findings at the Annual NEIU Student Research and Creative Activities Symposium in April 2020