an innovative approach

However, there was no discussion about a complex social activity of science based on
the teaching unit.
After Mr. Vyn’s practices, the survey and the interviews were
used to indicate students’ varied understanding about the nature of science in the three
aspects including scientific ideas were subjected to change; that science demanded
evidence; and that science was a complex social activity.
5.3.2) Students’ Understanding about the Nature of Science
The survey indicated that students were ambiguous in
understanding the nature of science. Most students understood way of finding
scientific evidence demanded for supporting scientific ideas. Half students did not
believe that scientific ideas could be changed. Half students believed that scientists
cooperatively developed the ideas.
A majority did not gain the understanding of the aspect that
scientific ideas are subjected to change. Although forty eight percentages understood
that disproved or detected error theories and laws of previous scientists could be
substituted by new theories and laws. The rest of the students, fifty two percentages,
thought that the previous theories and laws had not been changed. For example, they
believed that change appeared in term of application of previous knowledge; previous
knowledge was not changed actually. Scientific theories which were proved true
many times by correctly experiments and then became a law would not be changed.
All students perceived the aspect of science that scientists
demanded evidence to support their ideas in/about science, but they held varied
conceptions about ways of finding the evidence. Ten percentages focused on process
or method of science as the way of finding the evidence. Fifty five percentages
perceived that scientists used investigating, searching and experimenting to find out
an acceptable explanation, the evidence of science. A minority, twenty percentages,
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