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Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal

Category

Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences > Education > Science Education

Received

June 14, 2022

Accepted

August 19, 2022

Published

August 31, 2022

Authors

Merika Charupoom (MC)1*, Yasmeen Hernandez (YH)2*, Emily Carter (EC)2, Nicole Juliana Thomas, M.S. (NJT)3, and Tina Vo, Ph.D. (TV)3

Author Affiliations

1Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA.

2School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA.

3Department of Teaching and Learning, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, USA.

Corresponding Author

*Merika Charupoom, charum1@unlv.nevada.edu

*Yasmeen Hernandez, hernay2@unlv.nevada.edu

Author Contributions

*Charupoom & Hernandez share first author responsibility for this paper, and the work is reflective of equal effort onboth of their parts.

MC: Substantially contributed source curation, literature review, drafting of paper, formal analysis, writing of theoriginal draft, and reviewing and editing of the manuscript.

YH: Substantially contributed source curation, literature review, drafting of paper, formal analysis, writing of theoriginal draft, and reviewing and editing of the manuscript.

EC: Supported research through literature review.

NJT: Assisted in data analysis and manuscript editing.

TV: Supervised the project, research and the writing.

Data Availability Statement

The data for this project is available upon request to the PI of this project Tina Vo (tina.vo@unlv.edu).

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares that they have no competing interests.

Ethical Considerations

This research is covered by a Category 1 exempt IRB [UNLV-2021-247 Investigating the impact of OpenSciEd], held by Dr. Tina Vo. All authors are CITI certified and were the only researchers to work with anonymized data.

Funding

This research was made possible by the UNLV Office of Undergraduate Research’s (OUR) 2021 Undergraduate Research Stimulus Program (URSP) Track 1: Undergraduate Research Mentor-Mentee Program.

Abstract

The Nature of Science (NOS) is a component of science literacy that supports critical thinking around science concepts, speaking to how and why science is conducted and connected to creating data and evidence. NOS is designed to be more than the standardized lessons of science; it helps children critically analyze and solve real-world and societal issues using scientific knowledge. The interpretation of science varies between the ideology and beliefs of each individual. Given the importance of this idea, it is necessary that teachers be able to provide NOS opportunities to students; however, first, they must have a firm grasp of the concept. To that end, we have created a qualitative study using the Views of Nature of Science (VNOS-D+) questionnaire to understand how a group of middle school science teachers conceptualize the NOS. The VNOS-D+ was administered to a cohort of teachers and administrators (n=23) within a Large Urban School District. The data was analyzed using the VNOS key and then open-coded by three reviewers. The results found that participants had an emergent and developing understanding of the NOS and should be supported to develop a robust NOS perspective. Given this finding, future research, professional development, and educational curriculums should support teachers to continually engage with NOS explicitly and implicitly to grow their understanding of the topic.

Keywords

Nature of Science (NOS), VNOS, middle school teachers, science education

Submission Type

Primary research article

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