Action Research Contributing to the Development of Lesson Designs That Promote Creative Understanding of the “Nature of Science (NOS)”

<p>This action research project is a case study of lower secondary school science class, with the aim of obtaining suggestions on lesson design that promotes creative understanding of the “Nature of Science (NOS).” “Nature of Science (NOS)” is here understood to refer to the epistemological knowledge of science, focusing on “what science is” and “scientific activity”. In this study, the following three points were established as a means of promoting creative understanding of NOS: First, the “learning context approach,” places the history of science at the center of the curriculum and promotes awareness of NOS through learning about the research methods used by predecessors as well as the background in which scientific theories and principles were discovered. Second, teachers and learners engage in scientific inquiry that clarifies scientific theories and principles that have been discovered by referring to the views and ideas of earlier philosophers. Such an “inquiry process approach” promotes awareness of NOS in relation to those prior inquiry processes. Third, the teachers present a framework for capturing NOS and set up opportunities for students to reflect on their awareness of NOS during class time. The results of our study confirmed that the participants were able to compare what they were aware of regarding NOS from the two approaches, and to construct their thoughts and acquire scientific knowledge while integrating these two approaches. In addition, the opportunity to reflect on what they were aware of regarding NOS encouraged them to acquire a perspective to continuously keep NOS in mind and to think about comparing what they learned from the two approaches. On the other hand, the students showed a tendency to value awareness prompted by the inquiry process approach more than the learning context approach, which is more likely to influence their construction of ideas about NOS.</p>