The effect of using reflective nature of science questions on seventh grade students' views of nature of science and their understanding of photosynthesis

The present study examined whether NOS instruction that included teaching reflective NOS questions was more effective than NOS instruction without teaching reflective NOS questions in improving 7th graders' views of NOS, their transfer of NOS to a novel content context, and their understanding of photosynthesis. Both an alternative and an experimental 7th grade groups were taught the tentative, subjective, empirically-based, and observation vs. inference aspects of NOS with an explicit and reflective approach. But, only the experimental group discussed the usefulness of NOS for learning science content and learned the reflective NOS questions, "How do you know what you know?" and "What do you mean by__?" Both treatment groups learned the concept of photosynthesis and had the same teaching. Data sources were the NOS questionnaire that consisted of two sets of questions in the photosynthesis context and in a novel content context, and the photosynthesis questionnaire that assessed participants' conceptions of photosynthesis. Results indicated that the experimental treatment was more effective than the alternative treatment at improving participants' views of NOS. The experimental group enhanced their views of NOS significantly more than the alternative group. With respect to transfer of NOS, only in the tentative aspect and the observation vs. inference aspect of NOS, did the experimental group have significantly higher gain scores in the novel content context. There was no substantial difference between the two groups in terms of the other two aspects of NOS. The comparison between the pre- and the post-test for photosynthesis revealed that both groups gained a similar amount of understanding of photosynthesis. No significant difference was found between the two groups. Supplementary analyses indicated that participants focused on the certainty of knowledge when responding to questions on the NOS questionnaire. In judging the certainty of knowledge, they conflated the certainty of knowledge on the basis of their personal understanding of given content and the certainty of knowledge in relation to NOS. Participants' responses to NOS questions reflected the tension between their personal understanding of science content and their views of NOS.