Research on Teaching, Learning, and Assessment of Nature of Science

This chapter provides a systematic review of research on the teaching, learning, and assessment of nature of science in science education since the time of the publication. Nature of Science (NOS) research remains predominantly focused within formal educational settings. Science educators have been working on NOS for precollege classrooms in earnest since the mid-1950s. Thus, there is a voluminous literature on conceptualizing NOS as a construct for science education. Instances of use by researchers of NOS instruments, whether forced-choice or open-ended, is quite telling. The variety of open-ended approaches to NOS assessment could be perceived, at first, to be overwhelming or even counterproductive. Lin et al. developed the Students’ Views of Nature of Science instrument to examine lower secondary Singaporean students’ conceptions of consensus NOS aspects. Overall, NOS assessment has largely stabilized, with a decided and persistent shift from using forced-choice to open-ended assessments.