The Nature of Science in Science Curricula: Methods and concepts of analysis

Abstract

The article shows methods and concepts of analysis of the nature of science in science curricula through an exemplary study made in Portugal. The study analyses the extent to which the message transmitted by the Natural Science curriculum for Portuguese middle school considers the nature of science. It is epistemologically and sociologically grounded with particular emphasis on Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse and Ziman's conceptualization of science construction. The study used a mixed methodology and followed a dialectical process between the theoretical and the empirical. The results show that the nature of science has a low status in the curriculum with the exception of the external sociological dimension of science. Intra-disciplinary relations between scientific and metascientific knowledge are mostly absent. Recontextualization processes occurred between the two main parts of the curriculum. These results are discussed and their consequences in terms of scientific learning are explored. The mode of analysis used in the study has the potential of highlighting the level of a science curriculum, in terms of specific aspects of the nature of science.

Keywords:

• Science education
• Curricula
• Nature of science
• Intradisciplinarity

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Foundation for Science and Technology for financing the research. They are also grateful to Isabel Neves, Sílvia Calado and Vanda Alves for their contribution to the analysis of the curriculum.

Notes

^†A former version of this article was published in Portuguese by the journal Revista Portuguesa de Educação.

ESSA Group: Sociological Studies of the Classroom—research group which is part of the Centre for Educational Research of the Institute of Education of the University of Lisbon.

The broader research related to the process of curricular reorganization focused on the biology themes of the two curricular documents: ‘Sustainability in the Earth’ for the 8th year and ‘Living Better on Earth’ for the 9th year of schooling. This corresponds to 75% of the Essential Competences pages and 71% of the Curriculum Guidelines pages of the Natural Sciences curriculum for middle school. Only the Geology themes for the 7th year were not analyzed. An overview of this part of the curriculum shows that there is a similar trend to the one found in the analyzed parts with regard to the presence of the nature of science.

The concept of conceptual demand was introduced by Domingos (1989) and it was related to the complexity of competences. Further studies of the ESSA Group (e.g. Morais, Neves, & Pires, 2004) considered the complexity of competences and scientific knowledge to characterize the level of conceptual demand. The concept evolved to include the complexity of scientific competences and knowledge and also the strength of intra-disciplinary relations. This is the concept that was used in the broader study of which the study presented in this article is a part.

The analysis of the extent to which the text of the curriculum is made explicit to teachers and textbook authors was taken out of the article in order to meet referees’ suggestions. However, its results are referred in the conclusions.

Aikenhead (2000) considers that STS includes all dimensions of Ziman's conceptualization of science construction (1984). For him the STS content includes the interaction between science and technology, or between science and society, or also any of the following aspects: society issues related to science or technology, and issues of philosophy, history or sociology of science.

See instruments in Ferreira (2007). Also available online on http://essa.ie.ul.pt/researchmat_instruments_text.htm.

Ideological and pedagogical principles of the authors of the Natural Sciences curriculum were the object of a specific study (Ferreira, Morais, & Neves, 2011).

See note 7.

Complementary to the curriculum analysis, Calado and Neves (forthcoming) analyzed two Portuguese textbooks for the Natural Sciences theme ‘Living Better on Earth’ and the results of their study showed that science construction and the relation between scientific and metascientific knowledge are mostly absent in the textbooks. This combined with teachers own recontextualizations of a deficient Natural Science curricula, when the nature of science is considered, may play a role in maintaining naïve views. In fact, the study carried out by Alves and Morais (forthcoming), within the same research project, showed that the two teachers who participated implemented a practice in the classroom where metascientific knowledge and its relation to scientific knowledge were absent.

Some studies (e.g. Halai & McNicholl, 2004; McComas et al., 1998) have also shown that science teachers do not possess adequate conceptions of the nature of science. As referred by Lederman (2007), ‘Students’ and teachers’ understandings of NOS remain a high priority for science education and science education research’ (p. 832).