Exploring representation of nature of science aspects in 9th grade chemistry textbooks

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Eğitim Fakültesi, Matematik ve Fen Bilimleri Eğitimi Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2011

Öğrenci: FEYZA ESMER KÜÇÜKOĞUZ

Danışman: ÖMER GEBAN

Özet:

The aim of this study was to examine the representation of Nature of Science (NOS) aspects in 9th grade chemistry textbooks. Two textbooks nation-wide used are analyzed, one of them is written in Turkish the other in English. These textbooks were written according to 2008-2009 education program’s curriculum. A qualitative oriented approach was employed and ethnographic content analysis was used as the methodological framework for this research as Irez (2006) has performed. Data were analyzed by means of books’ sentences. The results of the study revealed that both of two chemistry textbooks were inadequate in representing NOS aspects which are; 1. Observation and inference are distinct entities of science, 2. Science is influenced by the social and cultural environment of the scientist, 3. Science is partly the product of human creativity and imagination, 4. Scientific knowledge is tentative, empirical and theory laden, 5. There exists a distinct, non-hierarchical relationship between scientific theories and laws, 6. “There is no universal, recipe-like, method for doing science.” The frequency of presence of each aspect in books was very low.