Looking Forward, Looking Backward: An Investigation of Students' Understanding of the Nature of Science.

This paper examines and tests the assumptions that a curriculum which adequately portrays instructional strategies (related to teaching the nature of science, science curricular content, and teachers' views of the nature of science) will increase students' understanding of the nature of science. This study was conducted over a 16-week period. A pretest-posttest nonequivalent-groups design was utilized to investigate seven research hypotheses. Three independent variables examined included teachers' conceptions of the nature of science, the use of instructional strategy, and the use of curricular content. The dependent variable was the students' scores on the Nature of Scientific Knowledge Scale. Results indicated that teachers with a high understanding of the nature of science were found to reflect the instrumentalist nature of science in their teaching practices. One implication is the importance of the instructional strategy in promoting students' understanding of the nature of science. (Contains 27 references.) (CCM)