Science Teaching Embodies The Nature Of Science

The nature of science (NOS) is one of the cores of scientific literacy, and how to enhance students'understanding of NOS has become one of the hot topics in the international reform of science education. With the proposal of the NOS and its research, HPS was put forward, has drawn a lot of attention, and is playing a great part in the process of NOS research. However, although NOS and HPS were raised about a hundred years ago, domestic researchers have shown little concern over NOS and its research. One manifestation is the missing of the systematic study of how to enhance students'NOS. The other manifestation is the indifference to the research of how to enhance the understanding of NOS from HPS perspective. Therefore, we will focus on how to improve students'understanding of NOS. First, the history and methods of the international research of NOS are reviewed, and the research paths and methodology of enhancing students'understanding of NOS from HPS perspective are clarified. Secondly, the relationships between NOS and history of science, between NOS and philosophy of science, between NOS and sociology of science, and between NOS and HPS, STS, SSI are analyzed. And then we present contents of NOS and HPS in national science education curriculum (framework or guide) in some countries and their science textbooks, which supports this study. Fourthly, the objectives of NOS teaching, the HPS framework of science teaching content, the teaching models and methods of NOS are expounded. Finally, science teachers'pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for NOS, which is helpful to transform teachers'understanding of NOS into students'NOS understanding, is constructed.The dissertation is divided into six chapters:The first chapter is an introduction, which mainly introduces the background, the significance and the framework of this study.In the second chapter, we trace the history of the international NOS research and clarify four major areas of the research of NOS, namely, the definition of NOS, the research of teaching strategies for improving NOS understanding, the research of promoting students'understanding of NOS from HPS perspective, the evaluation of students'understanding of NOS and its empirical research. These provide inspiration and reference for our related research and thus clarify the path of this study. In the third chapter, we expound the helpfulness of history of science for understanding NOS on two levels, namely, the typical themes of history of science and the specific content of NOS. The historical development of philosophy of science is described, which reflects the evolution and development of the content of NOS, and the core of philosophy of science and its significance for NOS teaching are summarized. From the sociology of science perspective, we discussed the content of NOS (especially about the relation of science and society), and proposed that the different point of NOS is the root causes of Science Wars. Based on the reflection of the development of history of science and its application in science education, we think it is necessary to understand NOS from the multi-dimensional perspective by combing through the relationship of HPS, STS education and SSI.In the fourth chapter, the HPS and NOS in national science education documents are analyzed. Based on the results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Education Survey and the studies of HPS in science textbooks, the NOS and HPS of the national textbooks in some countries are discussed. Both provide the possibility for teaching NOS from HPS perspective.The fifth chapter mainly discusses teaching objectives and contents of NOS. On the basis of the needs analysis of different segments in history of science and NOS, the pre-existing problems about objectives of NOS teaching are pointed out. And the explicit expression of objectives of NOS and its analysis from HPS perspective are clarified in combination with the specific cases. As to the teaching content of NOS, we can construct HPS framework in two ways. On the one hand, it can be done by searching for the corresponding subject content in textbooks, on the basis of the essence of the specific content of NOS (such as the relativity of science, the distinction between scientific laws and scientific theories). On the other hand, we can propose HPS framework about this topic to present the essence of NOS by selecting a particular subject in textbooks (such as the periodic table and the periodic law).The sixth chapter mainly describes the teaching process of NOS including teaching models and teaching strategies. With specific examples, the "science-inquiry" teaching model and experimental radiation model are proposed based on the theoretical basis, objectives, conditions for implementation, procedures and so on. Then, we put forward teaching strategies for integrating HPS into NOS teaching, which contain the historical case study (taking the simple pendulum as an example), the "historical-investigation" method (taking the Rutherford's nuclear structure and the refraction of light as examples) and analogy (taking the Rutherford's nuclear structure as an example). Thus, Chapter V and Chapter VI constitute the entire teaching of NOS.Effective teaching of NOS can not be realized without the transformation of science teachers'understanding of NOS into students'. Science teachers'view of NOS and their pedagogical content knowledge for the nature of science (PCK for NOS) are the prerequisite for this transformation. Therefore, we construct the three-dimensional structure of PCK for NOS based on several typical viewpoints of PCK, and point out that one key is science teachers'view of NOS, which shows the professional knowledge and professional competence. Then based on HPS approach, we draw on the teaching of "the history of scientific thought" and explicit teaching of NOS to help enhance students' understanding of NOS, which not only can be regarded as an effective way for science teachers to gain transformation ability but also can be viewed as a powerful evidence of enhancing students'understanding of NOS from HPS perspective.In the last part of the dissertation, a summary of the research is given, the deficiencies are pointed out, and its reflection and prospect are proposed.