ISSN: 2226-6348
Open access
Studies had shown that interest in science subject among secondary school pupils in Malaysia is low and seems to be decreasing. Researchers have posed various potential reasons for this apparent lack of interest in science such as pupils’ opinion that science in school is boring and not relevant to their lives. This is due to many science classes are taught as rote classes and science are presented as a pile of facts and lack of humanity aspects associated with the scientific process. Similar trend were also reported in other countries worldwide. The hypothesis put forth by researchers is that pupils need to observe models of how science is done, namely the nature of science (NOS) so that they will be able to connect with the human enterprise of science and thereby able use their knowledge to solve problems surrounding their lives. Therefore the purpose of this study is to investigate the level of NOS among secondary school pupils. This descriptive quantitative study had been administered to 70 Form Four pupils in a district in Malaysia, chosen by basic random sampling method. The result revealed that their NOS level were most likely to be at low level. This implies that pupils do not get adequate exposure on how scientific processes were done, thereby they do not place any interest to the science subject which do not seem to be connected with their lives.
Acar, O., Buber, A., & Tola, Z. (2015). The Effect of Gender and Socio-economic Status of Students on Their Physics Conceptual Knowledge, Scientific Reasoning, and Nature of Science Understanding. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 174, 2753–2756. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.962
Allchin, D. (2015). Making biology meaningful: Nature of science matters. The American Biology Teacher, 77(7), 481–482. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2015.77.7.1
Barvarz, R., Nami, Y., & Ahmadi, S. (2014). The Relationship between the Epistemological Believes and Academic Performance. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 114, 121–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.670
Bowman, C. R. (2012). Relationship between study habits and student attitudes towards science and technology.
Ismail, H., Hassan, A., Muhamad, M. M., Ali, W. Z. W., & Konting, M. M. (2013). Epistemological Belief and Learning Approaches of Students in Higher Institutions of Learning in Malaysia. International Journal of Instruction, 6(1), 139–150. https://doi.org/10.15405/FutureAcademy/ejsbs(2301-2218).2012.2.12
Jajuri, T., Hashim, S., Ali, M. N., & Abdullah, S. M. S. (2019). The implementation of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) activities and its effect on student’s academic resilience. Asia Pacific Journal of Educators and Education, 34, 153–166. https://doi.org/10.21315/apjee2019.34.8
Koenig, K., Schen, M., & Bao, L. (2012). Explicitly targeting pre-service teacher scientific reasoning abilities and understanding of nature of science through an introductory science cource. Science Educator, 21(2).
Kutluca, A. Y., & Ayd?n, A. (2018). Pre-service science teachers’ nature of science understandings’ influence on their socioscientific argumentation quality. Elementary Education Online, 17(2), 642–657. https://doi.org/10.17051/ilkonline.2018.419009
Lederman, N. G., Abd-El-Khalick, F., Bell, R. L., & Schwartz, R. (2002). Views of nature of science questionnaire (VNOS): Toward valid and meaningful assessment of learners’ \rconceptions of nature of science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39(6), 497–521. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.10034
Lederman, N. G., Lederman, J. S., & Antink, A. (2013). Nature of Science and Scientific Inquiry as Contexts for the Learning of Science and Achievement of Scientific Literacy. International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology, 1(3), 138–147. Retrieved from www.ijemst.com
McComas, W. F. (2015). The American Biology Teacher .
Ismail, M. H., Salleh, M. M. F. S. R. S. A. (2017). Malaysian Education Plan 2013-2025: Transformation on science classroom towards students’ achievement in TIMMS and PISA. The Social Sciences, 12(1), 6.
Samsudin, M. A., Zain, M. A. N., Jamali, S. M. N. A. E. (2017). Physics Achievement in Stem Project Based Learning (PjBL): A Gender Study. Asia Pacific Journal of Educators and Education, 32, 21–28. https://doi.org/10.21315/apjee2017.32.2
National Research Council. (2012). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas National Academies Press
Rahman, N. F. A., & Phang, F. A. (2016). Comparing teachers’ scientific epistemological stances and development. Man in India, 96(1–2), 501–512.
Van Griethuijsen, R. A. L. F., van Eijck, M. W., Haste, H., den Brok, P. J., Skinner, N. C., Mansour, N., … BouJaoude, S. (2015). Global Patterns in Students’ Views of Science and Interest in Science. Research in Science Education, 45(4), 581–603. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-014-9438-6
In-Text Citation: (Rashid et al., 2023)
To Cite this Article: Rashid, S. A., Iksan, Z. H., & Razak, K. A. (2023). Examining Secondary School Pupils’ Understanding of the Nature of Science and Its Implication. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 12(1), 1554–1566.
Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)
Published by HRMARS (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode