Perceptions of Eighth Graders Concerning the Aim, Effectiveness, and Scientific Basis of Pseudoscience: the Case of Crystal Healing

Download

10.1007s11165-017-9685-4.pdf

Date

2020-02-01

Author

Metin, Duygu
Çakıroğlu, Jale
Leblebicioglu, Gulsen

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

178
views

1190
downloads

Practices such as astrology or crystal healing can be defined as pseudoscience. Against pseudoscience, one of the major responsibilities of science education must be to develop science-literate individuals who are able to understand what science is, how science is undertaken, how scientific knowledge is constructed, and how it is justified, then they will be able to determine whether a claim is valid and be alert to practices which fall outside the realms of science, especially those in the area of pseudoscience. For this reason, the ability of recognizing flawed process and claims of pseudoscience is referred to one of the crucial parts of science literacy. The present study aimed to uncover middle school students' understanding of the inherent aim of pseudoscientists and pseudoscientific applications related to crystals and to reveal their judgments and justifications regarding the effectiveness and scientific basis of these applications. The present study was qualitative in nature. The results of the study showed that the students were very gullible about the aim, effectiveness, and scientific basis of pseudoscientific practices and in particular the use of crystals. Furthermore, similar to pseudoscientists, the students generally used weak reasoning to evaluate the presented claims and research designs about crystals and crystal healing.

Subject Keywords

Education

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/38535

Journal

RESEARCH IN SCIENCE EDUCATION

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-017-9685-4

Collections

Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Article

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Aim working status and scientific status of crystal healing as pseudoscience from middle school students perspectives Metin, Duygu; Çakıroğlu, Jale; Leblebicioğlu, Gülşen (null; 2016-04-17) Practices which are done under the name of science or seem to be scientific such as astrology or crystal healing can be defined as pseudoscience. Major issue in science education is to train scientifically literate individuals. Ability of realizing and criticizing flawed research process and claims of pseudoscience was referred as one of the crucial parts of science literacy by some researchers (Hodson, 2008; Hurd, 1998). This study explored middle school students’ comprehensions about inherent aim of pseud...
Exploring the development of pre-service science teachers’ views on nature of science in inquiry-based laboratory instruction Özgelen, Sinan; Yılmaz Tüzün, Özgül; Department of Educational Sciences (2010) The purposes of this study were to explore understanding of preservice science teachers’ (PSTs) nature of science (NOS) views during the explicit-reflective and inquiry-based laboratory instruction and investigate PSTs’ perspectives and experiences related to learning NOS aspects in the science laboratory course. This study was carried out during the Laboratory Application in Science II course. A total of 45 PSTs participated to the study. The design of the study was qualitative and exploratory in nature. I...
Systemizing: A Cross-Cultural Constant for Motivation to Learn Science Zeyer, Albert; Cetin-Dindar, Ayla; Zain, Ahmad Nurulazam Md; Jurisevic, Mojca; Devetak, Iztok; Odermatt, Freia (Wiley, 2013-11-01) The present study is based on the empathizing-systemizing (E-S) theory of cognitive science. It was hypothesized that the influence of students' gender on their motivation to learn science is often overestimated in the research literature and that cognitive style is more important formotivation than students' gender. By using structural equation modeling, and based on previous research, a precise causal model was formulated to test this hypothesis. Then, using multiple group confirmatory analysis, the model...
Investigating pre-service science teachers’ epistemological beliefs in the domain of environment through comparing with other domains Adıbelli, Elif; Yılmaz Tüzün, Özgül; Department of Elementary Science and Mathematics Education (2010) The main purpose of this study was to determine preservice science teachers’ (PSTs) epistemological beliefs regarding the nature of knowledge and learning in the domain of environment through comparing with the domains of biology, physics, chemistry, and mathematics. A total of 12 PSTs voluntarily participated in the study. The sample of this study was consisted of senior elementary PSTs who registered for an elective course titled “Laboratory Applications in Science and Environmental Education” in the fall...
Elementary Students' Scientific Epistemological Beliefs in Relation to Socio-Economic Status and Gender Ozkal, Kudret; Tekkaya, Ceren; Sungur, Semra; Çakıroğlu, Jale; Çakıroğlu, Erdinç (Informa UK Limited, 2011-03-01) This study investigated students’ scientific epistemological beliefs in relation to socio-economic status (SES) and gender. Data were obtained from 1,152 eight grade Turkish elementary school students using Scientific Epistemological Beliefs instrument. Canonical correlation analysis indicated that students with a working mother and educated parents as well as greater number of books at home together with a separate study room are more likely to have tentative views and less likely to have fixed views about...

Citation Formats

D. Metin, J. Çakıroğlu, and G. Leblebicioglu, “Perceptions of Eighth Graders Concerning the Aim, Effectiveness, and Scientific Basis of Pseudoscience: the Case of Crystal Healing,” RESEARCH IN SCIENCE EDUCATION, pp. 175–202, 2020, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/38535.