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Measuring Geoscience Students’ Perceptions of the Nature of Science

This study examines the perceived levels of understanding and attitudes towards the Nature of Science (NOS) among geoscience students. The study evaluates the impact of geoscience courses on NOS knowledge and attitude. The results indicate a decrease in NOS understanding and attitude, suggesting the need for explicit teaching on the NOS in geoscience courses.

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Measuring Geoscience Students’ Perceptions of the Nature of Science

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  1. Measuring Geoscience Students’ Perceptions of the Nature of Science Louis Nadelson1 and Karen Viskupic2 Boise State University 1--Department of Curriculum, Instruction & Foundation Studies 2--Department of Geosciences July, 2009 Teaching the Process of Science workshop at SERC, Northfield, MN

  2. Motivation Evaluation of a new sophomore-level course in the Department of Geosciences--GEOS 200 Evolution of Western North America What do our students know about the Nature of Science? Is their course work in the Department of Geosciences improving their Nature of Science knowledge? Does “doing science” through improve their Nature of Science knowledge?

  3. Methods Science Attitude Inventory II (SAI II, Moore & Foy, 1997) given at the beginning and end of two semester-long geoscience courses Assess Nature of Science knowledge and attitudes toward science 40-item tool, responses on a 5-point Likert scale

  4. SAI II Example Statements Statements related to NOS knowledge: “scientific ideas can be changed” “science tries to explain how things happen” “scientists cannot always find the answers to their questions” Statements related to attitudes towards science: “scientific work is useful only to scientists” “the search for scientific knowledge would be boring” “most people are not able to understand science”

  5. Sample Groups Course 1: Evolution of Western North America (24 students) Sophomore-level introduction to geology Emphasis on the process of science and how the different fields of geoscience work together. Lots of field work. Course 2: Geochemistry (20 students) Senior-level Emphasis on knowledge and application of geochemistry concepts. Lots of problem sets.

  6. Participant Demographics

  7. Research Questions • What were the perceived levels of NOS understanding and attitude of the two groups? • Did the participants’ perceived levels of NOS intellectual understanding and attitude correspond to their age, yearsof college, number of science courses or accurate conceptions of geoscience (measured by Geoscience Concept Inventory, Libarkin & Anderson, 2005)? • Did the participants’ levels of NOS understanding and attitude toward science change over the course of a semester and was the outcome consistent between the student groups?

  8. Results • What were the perceived levels of NOS understanding and attitude of the two groups? • Both groups have higher than average (positive) intellectual and emotional perceptions of NOS • No significant difference in levels of understanding between the two groups

  9. Results • NOS understanding correlated to…? • Age, number of science courses and years of college were NOT significantly correlated with participants’ intellectual and emotional perceptions of NOS • Knowledge of geoscience (as measured by the GCI) was significantly correlated with participants’ intellectual and emotional perspectives of NOS • Participants’ intellectual and emotional perceptions of NOS were significantly correlated

  10. Results • Did the participants’ perceived levels of NOS understanding and attitude toward science change? • YES! But, they decreased for both groups! • Intellectual perspective pre-post test paired samples t-test: t(41) = -3.43, p < .01 • Emotional perspectives pre-post test paired samples t-test: t(41) = -5.18, p < .01

  11. Why Did Perceptions of NOS Drop? • We are not explicitly teaching about the Nature of Science in our courses • Increased pressure at the end of semester may account for drop in emotional perceptions (attitude) • More negative attitude may reflect student development of cynicism toward science over the semester, particularly if they were not successful in their course work • I don’t know. We’re planning a follow-up study…

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