ERIC Number: EJ1064519
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 29
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0950-0693
EISSN: N/A
A Look into Students' Retention of Acquired Nature of Science Understandings
Khishfe, Rola
International Journal of Science Education, v37 n10 p1639-1667 2015
Having the learning and retention of science content and skills as a goal of scientific literacy, it is significant to study the issue of retention as it relates to teaching and learning about nature of science (NOS). Then, the purpose of this study was to investigate the development of NOS understandings of students, and the retention of these understandings four months after being acquired through explicit reflective instruction in relation to two contexts. Participants were 24 tenth-grade students at a private high school in a city in the Middle East. Explicit NOS instruction was addressed within a six-week unit about genetic engineering. Three NOS aspects were integrated and dispersed across the unit. A questionnaire, together with semi-structured interviews, was administered as pre-, post-, and delayed post-test to assess the retention of participants' NOS understandings. The questionnaire had two open-ended scenarios addressing controversial socioscientific issues about genetically modified food and water fluoridation. Results showed that most students improved their naïve understandings of NOS in relation to the two contexts following the six-week unit with the explicit NOS instruction. However, these newly acquired NOS understandings were not retained by all students four months after instruction. Many of the students reverted back to their earlier naïve understandings. Conclusions about the factors facilitating the process of retention as the orientation to meaningful learning and the prolonged exposure to the domain were discussed in relation to practical implications in the classroom.
Descriptors: Science Education, Science Process Skills, Scientific Principles, Scientific Literacy, Retention (Psychology), Grade 10, High School Students, Secondary School Science, Private Schools, Foreign Countries, Engineering Education, Genetics, Semi Structured Interviews, Pretests Posttests, Questionnaires, Controversial Issues (Course Content), Student Improvement, Science Achievement
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Grade 10; Secondary Education; High Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A