Improving Teachers' and Students' Nature of Science Conceptions

The nature of science (NOS) and its role in science education is complex, as is the goal of helping teachers and students attain a desired understanding of NOS. NOS issues could be tackled through writing in science and has implications for the kinds of writing tasks assigned in science. Research is warranted on these writing tasks and their effectiveness in promoting more desired views of NOS. This book is unique since it reports on teachers’ and students’ NOS views and the links between their views and diversified writing tasks in science, an area that lacks attention as a means for teaching about NOS. Different genres of scientific writing are seen as effective means of doing science and informing students about NOS, and the complexity of relationships between students’ views of NOS and writing in science is highlighted. The analysis should be beneficial in developing and implementing diversified writing activities that have the potential to realistically portray science to students, and should be especially useful to professionals in curriculum development, instruction, and student learning in science.