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Exploring a process view of students' knowledge about the nature of science
Author(s) -
Hogan Kathleen
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
science education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.209
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1098-237X
pISSN - 0036-8326
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1098-237x(200001)84:1<51::aid-sce5>3.0.co;2-h
Subject(s) - nature of science , science education , operationalization , sociology of scientific knowledge , philosophy of science , process (computing) , metacognition , descriptive knowledge , psychology , epistemology , science learning , scientific literacy , sociology , mathematics education , cognition , social science , computer science , philosophy , neuroscience , operating system
The role that students' knowledge about the nature of science plays in their daily learning of science in school is not well understood. To explore this topic, two categories are introduced that classify how students' understanding of the nature of science has been operationalized. Distal knowledge of the nature of science is students' declarative knowledge about professional science, including about the nature of scientific knowledge and scientists' epistemological commitments. Proximal knowledge of the nature of science is students' personal understandings, beliefs, and commitments regarding their own science learning and the scientific knowledge they—not scientists—produce and encounter. It is suggested that viewing these two kinds of knowledge structures within modern information processing frameworks that delineate roles of epistemological and metacognitive knowledge in learning can guide future research on students' knowledge about the nature of science as a mediator, not just an outcome, of their science experiences in school. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 84: 51–70, 2000.