There appears to be an almost universal commitment among science educators to promote the goal of student understanding of the nature of science. Recent disagreements among philosophers of science and between philosophers and other groups such as scientists and science educators about the nature of science, however, leave classroom teachers in a quandry: If experts disagree about the nature of science, how should we decide what to teach students? In this article, the authors first reconsider what level of understanding of the nature of science students should experience so that they can become both intelligent consumers of scientific information and effective local and global citizens. Second, based on an analysis of the literature, it appears that there is a general agreement among science education stakeholders regarding a set of descriptors that can be used to judge which questions or fields of study are more scientific or less scientific than others. Therefore, we propose that most precollege teachers should attempt to teach students how to use these descriptors to judge the relative merits of knowledge claims instead of teaching a set of rules that attempt to demarcate science completely from nonscience. Finally, we suggest two classroom activities based on this proposal and draw some implications for teacher preparation and future research.

The goal of this study was to explore Christian biology-related majors' perceptions of conflicts between evolution and their religious beliefs. This naturalistic study utilized a case study design of 15 undergraduate biology-related majors at or recent biology-related graduates from a mid-western Christian university. The broad sources of data were interviews, course documents, and observations. Outcomes indicate that most participants were raised to believe in creationism, but came to accept evolution through evaluating evidence for evolution, negotiating the literalness of Genesis, recognizing evolution as a non-salvation issue, and observing professors as Christian role models who accept evolution. This study lends heuristic insight to researchers and educators seeking to understand the complex processes by which Christian biology-related majors approach learning about evolution. ß

In this study, we defined and quantified the degree of cognitive conflict induced by a discrepant event from a cognitive perspective. Based on the scheme developed, we investigated the relationship between cognitive conflict and conceptual change, and the influences of students' cognitive characteristics on conflict in learning the concept of density. Subjects were 171 seventh-grade girls from two city middle schools in Korea. Tests regarding logical thinking ability, field dependence/independence, and meaningful learning approach were administered. A preconception test and a test of responses to a discrepant event were also administered. Computer-assisted instruction was then provided to students as a conceptual change intervention. A conception test was administered as a posttest. In analyzing students' responses to the discrepant event, seven types of responses were identified: Rejection, reinterpretation, exclusion, uncertainty, peripheral belief change, belief decrease, and belief change. These types were then ordered into four levels. The results indicated that there existed a significant correlation between cognitive conflict and conceptual change. t-test results revealed that there were statistically significant differences in the degree of cognitive conflict by the levels of students' logical thinking ability and field dependence/independence. Meaningful learning approach, however, was found to have no statistically significant effect on cognitive conflict. Educational implications are discussed.

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The investigators' intentions in this study were to examine preservice elementary teachers' sense of self‐efficacy with regard to science teaching and to define the construct of self‐efficacy with greater clarity. Additionally, the construct of pupil control was examined. To gather information toward these purposes, we investigated the following questions: Do prospective elementary teachers' efficacy beliefs relate to their beliefs concerning classroom management or control?; and How is a measure of self‐efficacy related to prospective teachers' self‐reported choice concerning the teaching of science, amount of time spent in performing “hands‐on” science, and/or perceived effectiveness as future elementary science teachers? Self‐efficacy was measured as two distinct constructs, personal self‐efficacy and outcome expectancy. Significant correlations were found between personal science teaching self‐efficacy and (1) the number of college science courses taken; (2) the number of years of high school science taken; (3) respondent's choice of science instructional delivery; and (4) respondent's perceived effectiveness in teaching science. When the outcome expectancy subscale is considered, however, only one significant correlation is indicated; perceived effectiveness in teaching science was significantly correlated with outcome expectancy. Personal science teaching self‐efficacy was significantly correlated with pupil control ideology while outcome expectancy was not. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.