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How some college students represent their understandings of the nature of scientific theories
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Metadata
Title
How some college students represent their understandings of the nature of scientific theories
Abstract
This study explores college students' representations about the nature of theories during their enrollment in a large astronomy course with instruction designed to address a number of nature of science issues. We focus our investigation on how nine students represent their understanding of theory, how they distinguish between scientific theories and non‐scientific theories, and how they reason about specific theories. Students' notions of theory were classified under four main categories: (1) hypothesis, (2) idea with evidence, (3) explanation, and (4) explanation based on evidence. Students' condition for deciding whether a given idea is a scientific theory or not were classified under six criteria: content domain, convention, evidence, mathematical content, methodology, and tentativeness. Students expressed slight levels of variation between their reasoning about scientific theories in general and specific theories they learned in the course. Despite increased sophistication in some students' representations, this study affirms the complex dimensions involved in teaching and assessing student understanding about theories. The implications of this study underscore the need to explicitly address the nature of proof in science and issues of tentativeness and certainty students associate with scientific theories, and provide students with more opportunities to utilize the language of science.
Date
01/01/2004
Citation
Dagher, Z. R., Brickhouse, N. W., Shipman, H., & Letts, W. J. (2004). How some college students represent their understandings of the nature of scientific theories. International Journal of Science Education, 26(6), 735–755. https://doi.org/10.1080/095006
Type of Publication
Author(s)
Dagher, Zoubeida R. | Brickhouse, Nancy W. | Shipman, Harry L. | Letts, William J.
Construct
Methodology
Research Setting
Target Group
Institution(s)
School of Education, University of Delaware | School of Education, University of Delaware | Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware | School of Teacher Education, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst
Journal Name
International Journal of Science Education
Peer-Reviewed Status
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Volume
26
Issue Number
6
ISSN
0950-0693 (Print), 1464-5289 (Online)
Resource Type
Nation(s) of Study
United States of America
Language
English