The impact of history of science based instruction on students’ understanding of the nature of science: the reconceptualized family resemblance approach

Date

2024-8

Author

İnci, Kadriye

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This study aims the explore the impact of the HOS based instruction on sixth grade middle school students’ understanding of NOS based on Reconceptualized Family Resemblance Approach to NOS (RFN). There are 5 categories in the RFN perspective, aims and values, scientific practices, method and methodological rules, scientific knowledge, and social-institutional system. A mixed design, specifically The Embedded Experimental Model was used. Four classes were randomly selected, with two as experimental and two as control. The study sample was 101 6th-grade students (45 boys, 56 girls) from a public school. Eight students from each class were selected purposively to take part in interviews. RFN Student Questionnaire was used as pre-test and post-test to obtain quantitative data, and semi-structured interviews were used before and after the treatment to obtain qualitative data. The results of the MANOVA on pre-test scores indicated that the experimental and control groups were comparable across all categories of RFN. However, MANOVA results on post-test showed that experimental groups students’ NOS understanding concerning aims and values, scientific knowledge, and social-institutional system was significantly higher than control groups students. For the remaining two categories, although there was no significant difference between groups, mean scores were higher in the experimental group. The qualitative findings also supported these results. Thus, findings suggested that HOS-based instruction is more effective than the curriculum-based instruction to create deeper understanding of NOS based on RFN categories.

Subject Keywords

Nature of Science, Reconceptualized Family Resemblance Approach (RFN), History of Science

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/111279

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis