Middle School Students' Nature of Science Understanding, Informal Reasoning Quality and Misconceptions About Socioscientific Issues

Date

2024-8-27

Author

Piri, Zeynep

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The purpose of this study was to explore middle school students’ nature of science (NOS) understanding, informal reasoning quality and misconceptions about socioscientific issues (SSI). Correlational research approach was used. The sample constituted 549 8th grade students in public schools and was selected by purposeful and convenient sampling methods. Data were collected using multiple instruments: Issue Familiarity Form focusing on global warming, Socioscientific Issues Concept Test for global warming, energy sources, cloning, genetic engineering, Informal Reasoning on Socioscientific Issues Questionnaire focusing on global warming, and The Students’ Views of Nature of Science (SVNOS). Descriptive statistics showed that students tended to view teacher as their primary source of information about global warming, they were good at creating supportive argument while tended to struggling creating counter argument and rebuttal, and often framed their arguments from an ecological perspective. Their overall concept knowledge of SSI was moderate, with the most common misconceptions were found related to energy sources and global warming. Their understanding of NOS was also at a moderate level. Correlational analysis revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between students' NOS understanding and their concept knowledge of SSI. Multiple regression analysis further indicated that students' informal reasoning quality predicted by both their NOS understanding and their concept knowledge about global warming. To improve students’ understanding about SSI, students need to be encouraged to communicate scientific knowledge through argumentation and explicitly discuss the nature of scientific knowledge together with how it has been generated by scientists.

Subject Keywords

Socioscientific Issues, Informal Reasoning, Misconception, Nature of Science, SSI, NOS

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/111455

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis