Since its origination in the late nineteenth century, the warfare metaphor has been used to characterize the relationship between science and religion, especially orthodox Christianity. Though thoroughly discredited by historians of science, the ideological descendants of Thomas Huxley, who spoke of science in quasi-religious terms, have kept the…

Since its origination in the late 19th Century, the warfare metaphor has been used to characterize the relationship between science and religion, especially orthodox Christianity. Though thoroughly discredited by historians of science, the ideological descendants of Thomas Huxley, who spoke of science in quasi-religious terms, have kept the…

The process of modernization began in Turkey under the reform government of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938). Turkey officially became a secular nation seeking to develop a modern economy with modern science and technology and political democracy. Turkey also has long been, and remains, a deeply religious society. Specifically, the practice of…

Describes the personal thoughts, or everyday thinking, of high school science students about a question relevant to science: What is Nature? Finds that a rich breadth of perspectives typically characterized any one student's discussion of Nature, though the level of science integration within everyday thinking remained low. Contains 116…

Presents a lesson, Scientific Literacy Is a Lifetime Skill, that provides thought and discussion on science as an aspect of everyday life. Uses concept mapping to help students explore from their perspective the relationship between formal science education and real-world situations. (JRH)

Argues that current thinking about science teaching and conceptual change needs to be counterbalanced by contextual or cultural constructivist ideas. A collaborative view should include the sociological study of cultural milieus in which scientific ideas arise. The logic of discovery from a sociological point of view implies that conceptual change…

This paper addresses the question of how the scientific community views the public understanding of science and whether there needs to be a re-conceptualization of the challenge to foster the public understanding of science, as well as whether there is a need to re-examine assumptions. It is argued that the science community's historic perspective…

American preservice science teachers' responses on Kimball's Nature of Science Survey (NOSS) were used as a basis for analyzing the sense of the nature of science held by a group of Nigerian preservice science teachers. The differences between the two groups and implications for international scientific cooperation are discussed. (Author/YP)

Some interesting work currently being done in science education research is with scientifically misconceived ideas about the causes and mechanisms of natural phenomena. Though not stated explicitly, it can be inferred from the corpus of this misconception research that an assumption of homogeneity among students is made, even where there is…

In this study, American pre-service teachers' responses on Kimball's Nature of Science Survey (NOSS) were used as a basis for analyzing the sense of "the nature of science" held by a group of Nigerian pre-service science teachers. In comparing the responses it was apparent that the Nigerian students were much more inclined to see science…