Objects of Inquiry

A number of authors have recognized the importance of understanding the nature of science (NOS) for scientific literacy. Different instructional strategies such as decontextualized, hands-on inquiry, and history of science (HOS) activities have been proposed for teaching NOS. This article seeks to understand the contribution of HOS in enhancing biology teachers’ understanding of NOS, and their perceptions about using HOS to teach NOS. These teachers (N = 8), enrolled in a professional development program in Chile are, according to the national curriculum, expected to teach NOS, but have no specific NOS and HOS training. Teachers’ views of NOS were assessed using the VNOS-D+ questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of two modules about science instruction and NOS. Both the pre- and the post-test were accompanied by interviews, and in the second session we collected information about teachers’ perceptions of which interventions had been more significant in changing their views on NOS. Finally, the teachers also had to prepare a lesson plan for teaching NOS that included HOS. Some of the most important study results were: significant improvements were observed in teachers’ understanding of NOS, although they assigned different levels of importance to HOS in these improvements; and although the teachers improved their understanding of NOS, most had difficulties in planning lessons about NOS and articulating historical episodes that incorporated NOS. The relationship between teachers’ improved understanding of NOS and their instructional NOS skills is also discussed.

In the National University of Colombia there are currently 25 museums and collections including art, medicine, natural science, anthropology and history. Taken together, they comprise the largest, most diverse and most important museum in Colombia, and also the least known. The collections are the product of the conservation and research work of the university in the 141 years of its existence. In recent years, the National University of Colombia has not only become more aware of the importance of its cultural and scientific heritage, but also of the marginality of the work in the university museums. For that reason, in 2006 the university began to work on a Museums and Cultural Heritage Project to develop policies for the conservation, acquisition, documentation, research and communication of its own cultural heritage. The National University of Colombia hopes, through the development of a stronger, structured, ethical, responsible, efficient and representative project about Museums and Cultural Heritage to be better prepared for current challenges. In addition, the project hopes to generate a new landscape of accessibility to the museums and collections of the National University of Colombia. In short, the Museums and Cultural Heritage System of the National University of Colombia, through a ‘Museums portal’ located in a colonial building in Bogota known as Claustro de San Agustin (Cloister of St. Augustine) seeks to highlight the cultural heritage of the university, and become, beyond the classrooms and research centers of the campus, an important reference for the meeting of teachers, students, citizens and other cultural and academic institutions. Open door policy Colombia National University has 25 museums and collections, which together give the university the largest and most diverse collections in Columbia. The collections of science, art, medicine, natural science, and anthropology are the result of the research and collecting of the university during its 141 year history. The goal of the Cultural Patrimonio and Museums System (PMS) is to provide more public access to the cultural heritage of the university so that the university becomes meeting place; a place where teachers, students, academic and cultural institutions, social actors, and citizens can come together. In October 2007 the San Agustin Cloister opened its doors as the headquarters of the PMS of the National University. At that time we had 3 to 5 visitors daily and in December 2008, the average was 125 people daily. To date, we have had a total of 27,400 visitors. Yet even more important information can be obtained by looking beyond the numbers. The essential question is: Why is it so important open the doors of university to the citizens? The answer is as simple as it is political: because the audience has to have access in order to contribute to the preservation of National University heritage. Beyond the campus: The other visitors of the university museums The museums that are located on the campus of the university are known to the community because of the importance of the campus, but access to the museums was limited in the past because the activities of the museums were primarily linked to the university’s curriculum. The cloister is located strategically in downtown Bogota, in the main cultural zone. It is able to distribute information about the university museums, resulting in visits from people who work in the

Science teachers need an adequate understanding of the nature and processes of science as the basis for their pedagogical content knowledge for effective classroom delivery. The aim of the study was to find out in-service teachers’ views on the nature of science (NOS) and how their views compared with informed understanding of the NOS. The study adopted an exploratory case study methodology, qualitative in nature, and used convenience sampling. A questionnaire was administered to 50 in-service teachers doing a bachelor of science honours degree at a selected university in Zimbabwe. The students had done a course in history and philosophy of science where there were exposed to some topics on the NOS. Frequency counts and mean scores were used to describe views of the participants. Analysis involved comparing in-service teachers’ responses with experts’ views. The findings reveal that the students had a naïve understanding of NOS in 5 out of 16 statements from the administered questionnaire. Despite these observations the participants generally had a fair understanding of the NOS as evidenced by the fact that the participants managed to correctly respond to 69% of the questions asked. As such we infer that teaching and learning of nature of science as part of history and philosophy of science had a positive impact on in-service teachers’ views. The few instances when participants’ responses revealed contradictions, suggest that teaching and learning history and philosophy of science may not be adequate to develop a full understanding of nature of science. Further research is recommended with large samples, using a revised Views Of Nature of Science (VNOS) questionnaire and interviews, and document analysis to reveal how nature of science is taught and learnt.

Although teaching nature of science (NOS) has been continually emphasized in many major reform efforts in science education, researchers claim that students do not possess adequate views of NOS. Insufficient understanding of NOS can be associated with the ineffectiveness of curricular or instructional approaches. Consequently, researchers have begun to examine ways to improve students’ understanding of NOS. In this study, we purposely focused on honored students who major in the sciences to see whether extended science programs develop better understanding of NOS. We aimed to understand the relationship between science instruction and students’ NOS understanding in Israeli science advanced placement courses. Semi-structured interviews with science teachers provided data about the instruction of science in general, and NOS instruction in particular. An open-ended questionnaire that dealt with global climate change assessed students’ understanding of NOS. Teachers reported about limited and implicit instruction about NOS. Although teachers believed that teaching NOS is important, the need for their students to succeed in the high-stake matriculation exams and the fact that these exams do not include questions dealing with NOS were indicated as the main reasons for the teachers’ reluctance to teach NOS. Nevertheless, we found a small overall improvement in students’ understanding of NOS. Two possible factors probably contributed to students’ improved understanding of NOS: conducting inquiry projects and teaching cases in history of science. Yet, in both contexts, the understanding improved only in one aspect of NOS. The small improvement in understanding NOS reflects the limited and non-systematic teaching of NOS. Implicit instruction is not effective enough to promote understanding of NOS, even in advanced 2-year science program, where both students and teachers are highly capable. Other factors that could explain the little improvement are insufficient subjects in the curriculum that emphasize NOS and teaching methods that do not encourage discussion about NOS.

This study explores the historical significance of religious sites in Hazara, a region in northwestern Pakistan. Despite their cultural and historical importance, these sites have received little scholarly attention, resulting in a significant gap in our understanding of the region's cultural and religious heritage. This research aims to address this gap by conducting a comprehensive historical analysis of religious sites in Hazara. Hazara's rich cultural and religious heritage is reflected in its numerous mosques, shrines, and temples, which are a testament to the region's complex history and cultural diversity. However, the lack of documentation and analysis of these sites has limited our understanding of their historical significance and cultural importance. This study draws on primary sources, including historical texts and archival records, to gather information on the history and development of religious sites in Hazara. Field observations were also conducted to document the current state of these sites and gather information from local communities. The findings of this study highlight the significance of Hazara's religious sites as symbols of cultural identity and religious tradition. The study also identifies challenges facing the preservation and conservation of these sites, including lack of funding, infrastructure, and institutional support. The research contributes to our understanding of the cultural and religious dynamics of Hazara and provides valuable insights into the region's history and cultural heritage. The study's findings have implications for policymakers, conservationists, and local communities working to preserve and promote Hazara's cultural and religious heritage.

The aims of this research are, (ⅰ) to consider Kuhn’s concept of how scientific revolution takes place based on individual elements or tenets of Nature of Science (NOS), and (ⅱ) to explore the inter-relationships within the individual elements or tenets of nature of science (NOS), based on the dimensions of scientific knowledge in science learning, this study suggests that instruction according to our Explicit Integrated NOS Map should include the tenets of NOS. The aspects of NOS that have been emphasized in recent science education reform documents disagree with the received views of common science. Additionally, it is valuable to introduce students at the primary level to some of the ideas developed by Kuhn. Key aspects of NOS are, in fact, good applications to the history of science through Kuhn’s philosophy. And it shows that these perspectives of the history of science are well applied to Einstein’s special theory of relativity. Therefore, an Explicit Integrated NOS Flow Map could be a promising means of understanding the NOS tenets and an explicit and reflective tool for science teachers to enhance scientific teaching and learning.

In this article, the argument is put forth that controversies about the scope and limits of science should be considered in Nature of Science (NOS) teaching. Reference disciplines for teaching NOS are disciplines, which reflect upon science, like philosophy of science, history of science, and sociology of science. The culture of these disciplines is characterized by controversy rather than unified textbook knowledge. There is common agreement among educators of the arts and humanities that controversies in the reference disciplines should be represented in education. To teach NOS means to adopt a reflexive perspective on science. Therefore, we suggest that controversies within and between the reference disciplines are relevant for NOS teaching and not only the NOS but about NOS should be taught, too. We address the objections that teaching about NOS is irrelevant for real life and too demanding for students. First, we argue that science-reflexive meta-discourses are relevant for students as future citizens because the discourses occur publicly in the context of sociopolitical disputes. Second, we argue that it is in fact necessary to reduce the complexity of the above-mentioned discourses and that this is indeed possible, as it has been done with other reflexive elements in science education. In analogy to the German construct Bewertungskompetenz (which means the competency to make informed ethical decisions in scientific contexts), we suggest epistemic competency as a goal for NOS teaching. In order to do so, science-reflexive controversies must be simplified and attitudes toward science must be considered. Discourse on the scientific status of potential pseudoscience may serve as an authentic and relevant context for teaching the controversial nature of reflexion on science.

Although formulating a broadly accepted definition of scientific literacy may be challenging, it is widely recognized that Nature of Science (NOS) is an essential component of it. There are different ways to define NOS. In some cases, NOS can be conceptualized through a number of general NOS aspects like for instance science’s empirical basis or tentativeness. This approach in NOS teaching and learning is considered to be helpful for advancing students’ understanding about NOS. Moreover, it has been suggested that history of science, and more specifically narratives informed by the history of science, can be very well used to explicitly and systematically highlight general NOS aspects. Thus, this paper reports on two “fiction talk stories” that we created considering the history of the super-organismic-plant-community concept and the critique against it. Our stories, “Inspiration cannot wait” and “Panta rhei,” set focus on the creativity involved in scientists’ work, the distinction between observation and inference, and the tentativeness of science. In this paper, we (a) discuss fiction talk stories as a type of narratives used in educational contexts, (b) highlight the historical background of “Inspiration cannot wait” and “Panta rhei” and present the narratives themselves, (c) discuss them in terms of their essential features and the strategies we considered, and (d) we make some final remarks.

Graduate Students’ Concepts of Nature of Science (NOS) and Attitudes toward Teaching NOS

Science education researchers have long advocated the central role of the nature of science (NOS) for our understanding of scientific literacy. NOS is often interpreted narrowly to refer to a host of epistemological issues associated with the process of science and the limitations of scientific knowledge. Despite its importance, practitioners and researchers alike acknowledge that students have difficulty learning NOS and that this in part reflects how difficult it is to teach. One particularly promising method for teaching NOS involves an explicit and reflective approach using the history of science. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of a historically based genetics unit on undergraduates’ understanding of NOS. The three-class unit developed for this study introduces students to Mendelian genetics using the story of Gregor Mendel’s work. NOS learning objectives were emphasized through discussion questions and investigations. The unit was administered to undergraduates in an introductory biology course for pre-service elementary teachers. The influence of the unit was determined by students’ responses to the SUSSI instrument, which was administered pre- and post-intervention. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted that focused on changes in students’ responses from pre- to post-test. Data collected indicated that students showed improved NOS understanding related to observations, inferences, and the influence of culture on science.

The present study aims to explore the inter-relationships within the individual elements or tenets of Nature of Science (NOS), based on the dimensions of scientific knowledge in science learning. Recent documents on science education reform that place a strong emphasis on NOS diverge from conventional wisdom. Scientific literacy can be significantly impacted by attitudes toward science. According to education theory, attitudes belong in the affective domain while cognitive understanding of the subject matter does not. This study suggests that instruction according to our NOS Flowchart should include the tenets of NOS. There are three major dimensions of learning in science: knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Additionally, it is valuable to introduce students at the primary level to some of the ideas developed by Kuhn. Key aspects of NOS are, in fact, good applications to the history of science through Kuhn’s philosophy. An explicit and reflective tool for science teachers to improve scientific teaching and learning, a NOS Flow Map may thus be a promising way to comprehend the NOS tenets.

Cultural tourism is the largest industry in the world and the fastest-growing sector. This has caused many cultural heritages in the form of temples to be used as tourist attractions, including the Puncak Penulisan Temple in Sukawana Village. As a result of state intervention and capitalism through tourism, it has resulted in the expansion of functions and transformation of cultural values at Puncak Penulisan Temple. Based on the background of this problem, this research aims to (1) analyze the process of commodification Puncak Penulisan Temple, (2) understand the ideology behind the commodification of Puncak Penulisan Temple, and (3) examine the implications of the commodification of Puncak Penulisan Temple. This research was designed using qualitative methods with a critical cultural studies approach. Data collection was carried out through interviews, observations, and literature studies relevant to the research title. Then the collected data was analyzed using qualitative descriptive analysis. The theories used to analyze research problems are the theory of genetic structuralism (Pierre Bourdieu). The results of the research show that the practice of commodifying the Cultural Heritage of Puncak Penulisan Temple has gone through a long process. This is caused by changes in habits (habitus) such as open attitudes of the community, changes in thought patterns and economic orientation, as well as the potential of the Sukawana Village community in the form of cultural and natural heritage. The commodification process is society's response to the struggle between globalization and capitalism through tourism with society's cultural values. The ideology behind the commodification of the Puncak Penulisan Temple's cultural heritage is the ideology of capitalism and the ideology of preservation. The commodification of Puncak Penulisan Temple's cultural heritage has implications for cultural, economic, and social aspects that influence the lives of the people of Sukawana Village.
 Keywords: commodification, cultural heritage, ideology, Puncak Penulisan Temple

Tartu Ülikooli kunstiajalooõpetuse moderniseerimisest ja kollektsioonide rollist kunstiajaloo professori valimistel aastatel 1919–1921

The large numbers of material culture`s objects that originate from Ukrainian territories of the late XIX — mid XX centuries are preserved in Polish museum and archival institutions. The main groups can be distinguished: museum collections of ethnography and art, archival documents and photo libraries (negatives and photo prints). Polish specialists, who have been digitizing such collections for long time, also deal with Ukrainian material, often involving Ukrainian scholars for attribution. A large part of the material is posted online (sometimes as separate projects), which provides an opportunity to get acquainted with Ukrainian cultural heritage of wide audience (most often associated with ethnographic Hutsul and Bojko Regions), for example, photos of Hutsuls and Hutsul life by Gonsiorovsky, Poddembsky, Dutkevych, Senkovsky. Most digitized objects are stored on institutions' servers, and scientists are given access to information during their research. Further usage of these documents by scientists is regulated by the legislation of the European Union and the relevant institution. Within the framework of Polish-Ukrainian cooperation, digital copies are transferred to Ukraine. In this way, the objects of Ukrainian cultural heritage become available for knowledge to the wide audience. Keywords: Ukraina, Polish, Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation, Culture Heritage, Collection, Archives, Photo, Ethnography, Art

Background While international research has explored the Nature of Science (NOS) in textbooks, few studies have systematically analyzed its historical evolution within a specific subject area. Purpose This study investigates how NOS is represented in the genetics content of Japanese high school biology textbooks from 1963 to 2023. Method Using the ten-dimensional NOS framework by Abd-El-Khalick et al. (2017), we analyzed 14 textbooks published over the six-decade period. Results The representation of NOS followed a trajectory of initial growth, a sharp decline in the 1980s under the ‘Relaxed Education’ policy, and a recovery from the 1990s onward. Explicit-reflective (86%–95%) and content-embedded (79%–88%) approaches were predominant. The depth of genetics mechanisms evolved from simple definitions (e.g. mutation) to system-based explanations (e.g. DNA sequence changes and natural selection), emphasizing the Tentative, Theory-laden, and Inferential NOS dimensions. Additionally, portrayals of genetic discoveries shifted from linear narratives to multidimensional, socially embedded perspectives. Conclusions Historical curriculum reforms and advances in scientific knowledge jointly shaped the presentation of NOS in Japanese genetics education. These findings offer valuable insights for future curriculum design and NOS-integrated science education globally.