Becoming Competent Outsiders To Science: Teaching Nature Of Science Through A Practice-based Approach

Abstract

Nature of science (NOS) has been recognized as an essential component for engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI). Yet the findings on the link between the two have been inconclusive. The scant attention to NOS refrains one from integrating multiple perspectives that is essential for making informed judgment about SSI. This calls for attention to a shift from students knowing NOS, to students using these understandings as tools to evaluate SSI. This study was set out to devise and implement a practice-based intervention SSI program (12 weeks) and to examine its effect on students’ use of NOS understanding for evaluating SSI. The participants were 110 undergraduate students with different majors in the program. Data were collected through questionnaires, reflective tasks and follow-up interviews. The study specifically focused on the key aspects of NOS understanding for evaluating SSI news, including peer review, conflict of interest, professional recognition, expert consensus, and tentativeness of science. The program improved students’ use of NOS understanding. Statistical analyses of pre- and post-course performance revealed a significant shift to the use of NOS understanding, in particular, the social aspects of the sources of information (p < .00001). Both the quantitative and qualitative findings suggested: (1) the development of multi-perspective evaluation of SSI news, and (2) a shift from taking a technical “insider” perspective to a layperson “outsider” perspective to science as a result of the practice-based intervention. This study offered empirical support to the call for a practice turn in learning about science. It also shed light on the inconclusive findings between NOS understanding and SSI evaluation reported by prior studies. Its findings on a practice-based approach potentially bridge the gap between NOS understanding and the use of such understanding for SSI evaluation.