High School Students' Views about Some Topics of the Epistemology of Science

과학인식론의 일부 주제에 대한 고등학생들의 견해

As science programs emphasize an understanding of the nature of science, it is needed to assess students' views on a wide range of science-technology-society topics. The purpose of this study is to investigate the views of high school students about some selected topics of the epistemology of science. The selected topics include the meaning of science, scientific assumptions, values in science, conceptual inventions in science, scientific method, consensus making in science, and characteristics of the knowledge produced in science. Identified preconceptions in the study are as follows: Science was seen as improving the world(20%), and technology was defined as the application of science(35%). Almost half of the sample(49%) subscribed to a view consistent with a creationist posture and large group of students(46%) expressed a purely ontological view. Only minority of the students(5%) discounted the role played by private science values, but one half of the sample denied the fact that gender-related values can influence the knowledge that scientist construct(53%). Only a small potion of the sample(5%) held a view contrasting to contemporary epistemology of science, but the majority(67%) expressed a simplistic hierarchical relationship in which hypotheses become theories and theories become laws. One third of the students(33%) held a preconception that the scientific method composed of questioning, hypothesizing, collecting data, and concluding. Students did not appreciate the role of consensus making in science(33%). An out-dated epistemic perspective describes the progress of science as simply an accumulation of knowledge(4%). In general, it was concluded that most high school students did not hold efficient understanding on the nature of science. It can be said that no adequate and consistent instruction took place to provide students with an authentic view of the nature of science.