New Perspectives in Science Education

The paper presents a new methodological approach in the study of nature of science (NOS) in science education. In particular, we focus on the development of a quantitative tool that can be used with pre-service science teachers to assess their understanding of NOS. NOS has been a key area of research in science education for numerous decades. A significant amount of this research has been based on what is typically called the “consensus view” of NOS. Significant body of empirical research has been produced including primarily quantitative-based studies on teachers’ and students’ perceptions of NOS. Recently based on some critiques of the consensus view, some new perspectives on the definition of NOS have been recommended including philosophers Irzik and Nola’s (2014) version based on what’s called the “Family Resemblance Approach” (FRA).  As Erduran & Dagher (2014) illustrate, FRA provides a useful framework for organizing science curriculum and instruction around science as an cognitive-epistemic system and science as an institutional-social system.  This ‘systems’ approach to organizing science curriculum and instruction ensures that understanding the nature of science is holistic and comprehensive revolving around key spheres of epistemic and social practices that are grounded in relevant historical or current contexts. Such a holistic approach presents new challenges and opportunities for the design of methodological tools.We report on a study as part of a funded project where we developed and tested a questionnaire based on an FRA approach to NOS to investigate pre-service science teachers’ holistic understanding of NOS.