Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
3rd International Conference on Science, Mathematics, Entrepreneurship and Technology Education , Bursa, Türkiye, 30 Eylül - 03 Ekim 2021, ss.43-44
Nature of science (NOS) understanding was seen as an important component for scientific
literacy (Lederman, 2007). The purpose of the study is to investigate eighth grade students’ NOS
understanding about three tenets of NOS tentativeness, empirical-based and subjectivity. The sample
consisted of 414 eighth grade students from four different public middle schools. The data were
collected in the fall semester of 2019-2020 academic year. To collect data, the Views of Nature of
Science Elementary Level (VNOS-E) Questionnaire was used. To analyze students’ NOS understanding,
the researchers used the rubric formed based on the rubric developed and used in the study of Akerson
and Donnelly (2010). Based on this rubric, the researchers classified the participants’ views as
inadequate, adequate, or informed for each NOS tenet. Then, inadequate views scored as 1, adequate
views scored as 2, and informed views scored as 3. The findings of descriptive statistics revealed that
students held adequate understanding mostly about tentativeness (M=1.59, SD=0.52). Then,
respectively, they held adequate understanding about empirical-based (M=1.46, SD=0.55) and
subjectivity (M=1.30, SD=0.50). About 43% of the students held inadequate, about 56% of them held
adequate and only about 1% of them held informed understanding on tentativeness tenet. About 57%
of the students held inadequate, about 40% of them held adequate and about 3% of them held
informed understanding on empirical-based tenet. About 72% of the students had inadequate, about
27% of them had adequate and only about 1% of them had informed understanding about subjectivity
tenet. The findings showed that almost half or more than half of the students have inadequate NOS
understanding on these three tenets. Based on the findings, suggestions were made to improve
students’ NOS understanding.