Teaching students about the nature of science is an important and necessary part of secondary science curricula. The Utah State Office of Education has provided specific guidelines called intended learning outcomes (ILOs) to teachers in the state. The ILOs are based on the national standards presented in the Project 2061 publications of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1990 and 1993. The ILOs are not tied to any one scientific discipline such as biology or chemistry, but are intended as global statements describing what scientists do and how scientific knowledge is gained. ILO 6 prescribes that students be taught about the nature of scientific inquiry and the nature of the resulting knowledge claims. State education officials currently assess knowledge of the ILOs through items which are embedded in content-specific, multiple-choice items. This practice confounds knowledge of the nature of science with the content knowledge from a particular course. This project describes the development of an instrument to assess high school students' knowledge of the nature of science separate from their knowledge of any particular scientific discipline. The resulting questionnaire largely meets its intended goal, but still needs improvement. The current questionnaire has 24 items with an internal consistency reliability estimate of .74. Students participating in the pilot administration may have exhibited some apathy which may have affected the reliability estimate obtained from their responses. Factors such as this may help explain the low internal consistency reliability estimate of this questionnaire and will make the validity of the questionnaire difficult to demonstrate. In spite of this and other shortcomings, the questionnaire may still be useful to secondary science teachers to gain an understanding of their students' knowledge about the nature of science. Based on this knowledge, teachers may be able to design specific instruction to teach students correct knowledge about the nature of science. Since internal consistency reliability estimates are low, the validity of this questionnaire is tenuous. Therefore, caution should be exercised in making judgments about students that would affect measures of academic performance.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:05:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 WesleyCO_DISSERT.pdf: 6721230 bytes, checksum: 88cae54372de377ee09da74089205341 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-10 / In last decades, the importance of including the contents of the Nature of Science (NOS) in Science Education has been emphasized. Several studies have focused on investigating the conceptions of NOS, supported by students and teachers, as well as design, implement and evaluate proposals that aim to provide a reflection on this theme in the educational context. Considering the complexity of such content, studies indicate the need for explicit and contextualized approaches and the History of Science (HS) is one of the possible paths to this inclusion. We started from the premise that, through a historical study, that aims to discuss the meaning and the basis of our "beliefs", we can know the process of building on what we "believe" and better understand its meaning. This thesis is part of this perspective, proposing to explore the History of the Vacuum, a themed high didactic potential still little used, in order to collaborate with the teaching content of NOS. We present actions on different fronts that originated three products in the context of this research. On the first front, we insert the research and production of instructional materials (three historical texts) to subsidize people interested in the implementation of HPS for educational context through this material. The relevance of this front is justified by the existence of gaps with regard to the production of such material for the context of teacher training. However, we consider that the preparation of instructional material of good quality and accessible does not guarantee that these resources will be used, if they will not be accompanied by discussions in teacher training, on how to use them, contexts and obstacles to be faced. The second part presented refers to the organization and implementation of a workshop for undergraduate students in physics and physics teachers, considering the instrumentalization of these individuals to the preparation and use of teaching strategies to approach aspects of NOS through episodes of History of the Vacuum, as well as the preparation of the text orientation for people interested in implementing the instructional material for secondary education. This guidance text contemplates the difficulties anticipated by the literature of the area and the main challenges faced by the participants about the didactic transposition of HPS for the educational context they were noted during the workshop. The relevance of this second front, in particular, is justified by the existence of gaps with regard to the inclusion of the theme of NOS and the HPS teacher training / Nas ?ltimas d?cadas, a import?ncia de incluir conte?dos de Natureza da Ci?ncia (NdC) no ensino de ci?ncias tem sido enfatizada. Diversos trabalhos tem se preocupado em investigar as concep??es sobre NdC sustentadas por alunos e professores, bem como em elaborar, implementar e avaliar propostas cujos objetivos se relacionam a propiciar espa?os de reflex?o sobre essa tem?tica no contexto educacional. Dada a complexidade desses conte?dos, estudos apontam a necessidade de abordagens explicitas e contextualizadas dos mesmos, sendo a Hist?ria da Ci?ncia (HC) um dos poss?veis caminhos para essa inser??o. Partiu-se da premissa de que, por meio de um estudo hist?rico, que visa discutir o significado e a base de nossas cren?as , pode-se conhecer o processo de constru??o do que acreditamos e entender melhor o seu significado. A presente disserta??o se insere nessa perspectiva, propondo, com o objetivo de colaborar com o ensino de conte?dos de NdC, explorar a Hist?ria do V?cuo, tem?tica de alto potencial did?tico ainda pouco utilizado. Apresentaram-se a??es em diferentes frentes que originaram tr?s produtos no ?mbito do presente trabalho. Na primeira frente, inseriu-se a pesquisa e a produ??o de materiais instrucionais (tr?s textos hist?ricos) para subsidiar interessados na transposi??o da HFC para o contexto educacional a partir do referido material. A relev?ncia dessa frente, em particular, se justifica pela exist?ncia de lacunas no que diz respeito ? produ??o desse tipo de material para o contexto de forma??o de professores. Considerou-se, no entanto, que a elabora??o de material instrucional acess?vel e de boa qualidade n?o ? garantia de que esses recursos venham a ser empregados se n?o forem acompanhados de discuss?es, na forma??o dos professores, sobre como utiliz?-los, contextos e obst?culos a serem enfrentados. Partindo desse pressuposto, a segunda vertente apresentada diz respeito ? organiza??o e implementa??o de uma oficina para licenciandos e professores de F?sica, tendo em vista a instrumentaliza??o desses indiv?duos para a elabora??o e uso de estrat?gias did?ticas para abordagem de aspectos de NdC por meio de epis?dios da Hist?ria do V?cuo, bem como a elabora??o do texto de orienta??o aos interessados em transpor o material instrucional para o Ensino M?dio. Esse texto de orienta??o contempla as dificuldades previstas pela literatura da ?rea (FORATO, 2009) e os principais desafios enfrentados pelos participantes acerca da transposi??o did?tica da HFC para o contexto educacional, que foram notados durante a oficina. A relev?ncia dessa segunda frente, em particular, se justifica pela exist?ncia de lacunas no que diz respeito ? inser??o da tem?tica NdC e da pr?pria HFC na forma??o de professores

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:05:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 GiovanninniLFB_DISSERT_pag_1_a_118.pdf: 7226413 bytes, checksum: dc94a6ed83c5371cec55bbc2522ef23a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-26 / The use of the History and the Philosophy of Science (HPS) for the teaching of science and scientific subjects has been advocated in recent decades. It has been pointed out that the History of Science could make for a deeper learning of scientific concepts, since it would promote a contact with the problems which that knowledge has set out to solve. Furthermore, historical episodes would serve to put the discussions about the nature of scientific knowledge into context. With a view to explore those potentialities, the literature in the field has sought to identify the challenges and obstacles for the didactic transposition of subjects from the History of Science. Amongst many aspects, the deficiencies in the training of teachers, so that they can work with the insertion of HPS in the classroom have been highlighted. Another aspect that has been mentioned to be a challenge has to do with the didactic transposition of the Primary Sources, that is, of the original texts on the History of Science. The Primary Sources have significant potentialities: making a connection possible between scientists and concepts, showing the difficulties faced during scientific endeavors, perceiving the role of mistakes as obstacles to be surpassed, not as defeat, etc. On the other hand, there has been little exploration of these concepts in an educational context, due to their own peculiarities. The original texts are often hard to understand and their interpretation demands knowledge of the historical and scientific context in which they were written, as well as skills pertaining to the conduction of research in the field of the History of Science. With this scenario in mind, the research towards this Professional MSc degree starts from the challenge of elaborating and discussing proposals which could enable the didactical transposition of the Primary Sources. We have worked specifically with Primary Sources on the History of the Vacuum and of the Atmospheric Pressure, because of the insertion of these subjects in the Brazilian High School curriculum, in connection with the didactical textbooks. "Historic Journals" were made up from clippings of the original historical texts, as was a Didactical Unit, which takes the usual textbooks as a basis and contemplates using the Journals and the entire Primary Sources in High School. At last, we have elaborated and implemented a course designed for the preparation of teachers and for being an opportunity for the discussion of the feasibility of putting these kinds of proposal into practice / Tem-se advogado nas ?ltimas d?cadas a respeito da utiliza??o da Hist?ria e Filosofia da Ci?ncia para o ensino de conte?dos cient?ficos e sobre a ci?ncia. Aponta-se que a Hist?ria da Ci?ncia poderia possibilitar um aprendizado mais aprofundado dos conceitos cient?ficos, uma vez que permitiria o contato com os problemas a que esses conhecimentos buscaram resolver. Os epis?dios hist?ricos serviriam, ainda, como contextualiza??o para discuss?es a respeito da natureza do conhecimento cient?fico. Tendo em vista o interesse em explorar essas potencialidades, a literatura da ?rea tem buscado identificar os desafios e obst?culos da transposi??o did?tica da Hist?ria da Ci?ncia. Dentre muitos aspectos, as lacunas na forma??o dos professores para atuar na inser??o da HFC no Ensino t?m sido apontadas. Outro aspecto citado como desafio diz respeito ? dificuldade da transposi??o did?tica das Fontes Prim?rias, isto ?, dos textos originais da Hist?ria da Ci?ncia. As Fontes Prim?rias teriam potencialidades significativas: viabiliza??o da conex?o dos conceitos com os cientistas, visualiza??o do caminho ?rduo do empreendimento cient?fico, percep??o do o papel do erro como obst?culo a ser superado e n?o como derrota, etc. Por outro lado, esses recursos seriam ainda pouco explorados no contexto educacional devido ?s suas pr?prias peculiaridades. Os textos originais costumam ser de dif?cil leitura e sua interpreta??o requer conhecimentos a respeito do contexto hist?rico e cient?fico em que foram elaborados, bem como habilidades inerentes ? pesquisa em Hist?ria da Ci?ncia. Frente a esse cen?rio, o presente Trabalho de Conclus?o deste Mestrado Profissional parte do desafio de atuar na elabora??o e discuss?o de propostas visando a transposi??o did?tica de Fontes Prim?rias. Especificamente, trabalhou-se com Fontes Prim?rias da Hist?ria do V?cuo e da Press?o Atmosf?rica tendo em vista a sua inser??o no Ensino M?dio de forma articulada aos livros did?ticos. Foram elaborados Jornais Hist?ricos a partir de recortes dos textos hist?ricos originais, bem como uma Unidade Did?tica, que parte do material did?tico usual e contempla a utiliza??o dos Jornais e Fontes Prim?rias completas no Ensino M?dio. Elaborou-se e implementou-se, por fim, um curso voltado ? instrumenta??o de professores como espa?o de discuss?o sobre a utiliza??o desse tipo de proposta