Investigating Coherence About Nature of Science in Science Curriculum Documents: Taiwan as a Case Study

The article focuses on the analysis of curriculum documents from Taiwan to investigate how benchmarks for learning nature of science (NOS) are positioned in different versions of the science curricula. Following a review of different approaches to the conceptualization of NOS and the role of NOS in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science & education 2019-07, Vol.28 (3-5), p.291-310
Main Authors: Yeh, Yi-Fen, Erduran, Sibel, Hsu, Ying-Shao
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Benchmarking
Case Studies
Comparative Analysis
Education
Educational Change
Educational History
Epistemology
Foreign Countries
Guidelines
History
Philosophy of Science
Science Curriculum
Science Education
Science Instruction
Scientific Literacy
Scientific Principles
SI: nature of science
Teaching Methods
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:The article focuses on the analysis of curriculum documents from Taiwan to investigate how benchmarks for learning nature of science (NOS) are positioned in different versions of the science curricula. Following a review of different approaches to the conceptualization of NOS and the role of NOS in promoting scientific literacy, an empirical study is reported to illustrate how the science curriculum documents represent different aspects of NOS. The article uses the family resemblance approach (FRA) as the account of NOS and adapts it for analysis of the curriculum documents. The FRA defines NOS as cognitive-epistemic and social-institutional systems that serve as constructs of knowledge categories with a high level of interconnectedness. The FRA was used as an analytical tool for investigating two sets of Taiwanese curriculum guidelines published 10 years apart, providing an opportunity to discuss how NOS is addressed in the curriculum reforms. The findings show a shift away from the excessive centralization of the cognitive-epistemic system to a consideration of the social-institutional system. Modifications to the benchmarks are proposed in order to achieve a more holistic and progressive approach to NOS. The article contributes to studies on NOS in science education by illustrating how the FRA can act as a tool for exploring interconnectedness of NOS ideas in the curriculum.
ISSN:0926-7220
1573-1901
DOI:10.1007/s11191-019-00053-1