Investigative Research On Junior Middle School Students' Current View Of Nature Of Science

Comprehensive improvement of every student's scientific literacy is the core of science education, and their understanding of basic contents of nature of science (NOS) is a central element of scientific literacy. Developing students' understanding of NOS is defined as a goal of science education in The National Curriculum Standards for Science Education issued in 2001, which reflects that students' understanding of NOS begins being emphasized in science education in our nation.The Investigative research is carried out at the background of the New Curriculum Reform of Basic Education in our nation, which aims at getting a preliminary recognition of students' current view of NOS at the southeast coastal areas in our country. And this can act as a feedback of the achievement of the goals of NOS education raised in the new curriculum standards, which providing the realistic criterion for the further innovation of the curriculum systems and instruction contents.According to the forgoing purposes, the main contents of the research are as followings. First, the Questionnaire of Junior Middle School Students' View of NOS and the related Interview Outlines are Compiled and constructed. Second, 903 students in Grade 2 and Grade 3 from 10 schools in Ningbo are sampled for the investigation of their view of NOS, as to know the student's present view of NOS. Third, the results are analyzed, reflecting on and suggestions are brought up for it.The data of the investigation are processsed and analyzed with the SPSS and EXCEL. Combining with the results of the survey of questionnaire and interview, the main conclusions of the research can sum up as 4 points.Firstly, junior middle school students' present view of NOS is not satisfatory. Students have a preliminary understanding at the items of the Reliable, Tentative of science knowledge, Cooperative and Communicative of science inquiry, the spirit of Truth- seeking, Critical and Innovative, while in the other items of NOS, they hold a poor understanding, such as the Falsification and Constructive of science knowledge, the Creative, Logic, Multivariate and Limitative methods in science inquiry ,the Rational and Social value of science, at which the students have got a superficial grasp. As to the Interpretative, Predicable, Theory-laden, the relationship between Science and Technology, they have a even worse understanding.Secondly, the contrast between the view of NOS of students from different types of school is remarkable. Be compare with students of suburban schools, students of urban ones have a more comprehensive understanding at 13 items of NOS, especially at the Tentative, Constructive, Cooperative and Communicative, Theory-laden, Truth-seeking, Critical and Innovative, Social Value, while only at the item of Reliable, they have a similar cognition. Besides, students of urban schools are inclined to be a scientism and pragmatism.Thirdly, the view of NOS of students in different grades and genders has few distinctions. Students in G2 hold approximate view with ones in G3 in the items of Tentative, Falsification, Constructive, Interpretative, Predicable, etc. And at the items of Reliable, Cooperative and Communicative, the number of students in G2 are more than the one in G3, while at the items of Multivariate and Limitative methods, Logic, Theory-laden and Rational, the contrary is the case. As to the relation between the view of NOS and the gender, girls and boys hold similar view at most items except for the items of Cooperative and Communicative at which girl have more universal understandings than boys, while boys hold a more comprehensive knowledge at the item of Theory-laden.Fourthly, there are correlations between students' view of NOS and the achievements as well as their passions in science. The mark students got in the questionnaire on Scientific Knowledge, Scientific Value and NOS has extremely remarkable correlations with their achievements and passions in science, and the mark on Scientific Inquiry has remarkable correlations with that two variables. Analysis and reflections are made on the junior middle school students' present view of NOS in this dissertation, which believe that the New Curriculum Reform do a certain favor for the improvement of the students' view of NOS. However, because of the influence of Chinese traditional culture, science teachers' non-comprehensive understandings of NOS and the formalization of inquiry instruction, the student's view of NOS are not satisfactory. Besides, distintions exist between view of NOS of students in urban school and suburban ones, as the unfair distribution of educational resources. Thus, corresponding suggestions and plots are raised to improve the situation, including reflecting NOS in the science teaching, correcting science teachers' view of NOS and reducing the gap of educational resources between urban and suburban schools.