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ERIC Number: EJ1250009
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Apr
Pages: 32
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0926-7220
EISSN: N/A
How Do University Students Perceive the Nature of Science?
Akgun, Selin; Kaya, Ebru
Science & Education, v29 n2 p299-330 Apr 2020
The paper presents an empirical study on university students' perceptions of nature of science (NOS). NOS is framed in terms of the cognitive, epistemic, and social-institutional systems of science based on the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) (Erduran and Dagher 2014; Irzik and Nola 2014; Irzik and Nola, SCED 20:591-607, 2011). FRA includes the following categories: aims and values of science, scientific practices, scientific methods, scientific knowledge, and social-institutional aspects of science. A study was conducted with 15 university students from science and non-science majors at a public university in Turkey. Individual interviews were conducted, and qualitative data analysis was carried out. The educational adaptation of FRA was previously referred to as RFN (or the Reconceptualised FRA to NOS) (Kaya and Erduran, SCED, 25(9-10):1115-1133, 2016). In this study, categories of RFN were identified in students' responses. The results show that non-science majors (e.g., philosophy, sociology) have an enhanced perception of NOS in comparison to science majors (e.g., physics, computer engineering). It is also observed that university students were not explicitly aware of different aspects of NOS and their perceptions do not represent a holistic account. The study suggests that RFN can be used as a framework to explore university students' perceptions of NOS and their perceptions of NOS are linked to their domain-specific educational background.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Turkey
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A