Elementary Students' Understanding Of The Nature Of Science And Its Influencing Factors

The development of citizens' scientific literacy has become an important issue for all countries to develop and plan future education,and is the core content of education reform and exploration in countries all over the world.As an important part of the development of scientific literacy,understanding the Nature of Science(NOS)needs to be paid attention to in the field of science education.As a key period for students to develop scientific literacy,basic education should help students understand NOS through the implementation of science curriculum and teaching.Until now,there are still few researches on students' understanding of NOS at different stages in China,especially in elementary school period.Also there are few studies that can show the specific situation and performance characteristics of Chinese elementary school students' understanding of NOS.On the basis of sorting out the domestic and foreign research results on NOS,this study uses textual analysis,Delphi method,investigation method,etc.,theoretically discusses the content related to NOS that elementary school students can understand,and constructs a model of elementary school students' understanding on NOS.Based on this,an evaluation tool is designed to investigate Chinese elementary school students'understanding of NOS and analyze the performance characteristics.At the same time,this research studies the correlative factors that affect the elementary school students'understanding of NOS,and establishes the influencing factor model.This study broadens the research horizon of NOS in elementary school science education in China,hoping to help science curriculum and teaching to carry out the teaching practice of NOS.The introduction part mainly introduces the origin of the research.This part starts from the research background and significance,clarifies the research problems,defines the concepts related to NOS,sorts out and reviews the existing research both at home and abroad,then conducts research design,and establishes the research content,ideas and main methods.Chapter one analyzes the main contents of NOS in the field of international science education.Using text analysis,this study analyzed core literacy framework developed by the United States,Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,European Union,the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization,Japan and China,science curriculum standards or syllabuses set by the United States,Australia,England,Singapore,South Korea,New Zealand,and China,and the assessment framework of international science education assessment projects,such as PISA,TIMSS and NAEP,focused on the content of NOS in the elementary school science education.The research clarifies what content of NOS that elementary students could understand,how they are presented in the science curriculum standards,and the content of NOS evaluated by large-scale evaluation projects,which provides theoretical support for the construction of the understanding model of NOS by elementary school students.Chapter two constructs the elementary students' understanding model of NOS.Combined with the existing research at home and abroad,the research constructed a preliminary model and used the Delphi method to modify.Finally the expert consensus was reached,and the understanding model based on the big idea was established.The understanding model contains four big ideas:Science can explain various phenomena in the natural world;Scientific knowledge is evidence-based and needs to be constantly modified as new evidence is discovered;Scientific inquiry is the basic way of scientific research,and the methods and procedures are diverse;Science is a common enterprise of mankind,the application of science in engineering and technology can benefit and affect human society.Each big idea contains a number of content indicators,and the model has a total of 12 indicators.Chapter three focuses on investigation of the elementary school students'understanding of NOS in China.The research drew lessons from the classic tools to assess the elementary students' understanding of NOS in the field of international science education and adapted the tools appropriately in combination with the practical situation of the elementary school science education and traditional culture background in China.The Rasch model of Item Response Theory was used to carry on the data and model fitting analysis to test the reliability and validity of the tool.The study sampled nine elementary schools in eastern,central and western China,a total of 825 pupils were randomly selected,including 410(202 boys,208 girls)Grade 4 students and 415(216 boys,199 girls)Grade 6 students.The number of valid questionnaires was 761.The results show that Chinese elementary school students' understanding of NOS is at a low level on the whole,and the development is not balanced,but compared with the international related research results,the understanding level of Chinese students is higher than the international average level.The understanding level of sixth grade students on NOS is significantly higher than that of fourth grade students.Students in different level of school have different understanding of NOS.According to the answers of elementary school students,their understanding of each big idea shows certain characteristics.Chapter four mainly discusses the influencing factors of elementary school students'understanding of NOS.The study explored the influence of family socio-economic status,and constructed a model of influencing factors from four aspects:school science education,family education,peer effect and social role.Linear Regression Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling were used to analyze respectively.The regression analysis results show that family socio-economic status has a significant impact on the understanding level of NOS of elementary school students,students with higher family socio-economic status have a higher understanding level.Structural equation modeling analysis results show that,school science education has a positive impact on students'understanding significantly,and the mediation effect of peer effects through the school science education have significant positive impact,family education and social role have no significant impact.Chapter five summarizes the theoretical and empirical work and conclusions of the research,discusses the implication that brings to science education in elementary schools,reflects on the whole study,and summarizes the innovation and limitations.