Abstract
This research has been conducted aiming to explain the characters of science education curriculum based on the nature of science components. The main purpose of this research has been examined science faculty members’ and students’ points of views on science education curriculum based on the nature of science components, in current and desired state, at university of Isfahan and Isfahan University of Technology. The aspects of the nature of science that have been examined in this research were tentativeness, empirical basis, creativity, subjectivity, socio-cultural issues, observation/ interpretation and theory/ law. These components have been examined regarding four dimensions of curriculum, goals, content, implementation and evaluation in current and desired state. This has been a mixed method, quantitative and qualitative, research. For conducting the qualitative part, phenomenological and in quantitative part analytical-descriptive methods have been used. Statistical populations of research in qualitative part have been 64 members of Iranian scientific associations (physics, chemistry, biology, and geology) and in quantitative part have been 2407 including 163 faculty member and 2244 undergraduate student. The sampling method in qualitative part has been purposeful and included all of the 64 members of scientific associations. The sample of quantitative part has been allocated by using stratified random sampling. In this part the sample have been 81 of faculty members and 302 students. To be sure about the adequacy of sample, the statistical power has been tested and revealed 0.89. Standard open-ended questionnaire and close-ended researcher made questionnaire have been instruments of this research. The Construct validity of researcher made questionnaire has been confirmed by the confirmatory factor analysis method. The reliability of researcher made questionnaire has been tested with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (a) and revealed 0.81 for all of questionnaire. In order to analyze the data of open-ended questionnaire, categorization method and to analyze the data of the research made questionnaire, descriptive and inferential statistical tests such as Kolmogorov-smirnov, one variable T-Test, hotelling’s T-square, paired samples T-test, multivariate tests and Scheffe have been used. In qualitative part of research, results showed that scientific associations’ members have congruent conceptions with current ideas in five aspects, tentativeness, empirical basis, creativity, subjectivity and observation/ interpretation of nature of science. Nonetheless, regarding socio-cultural effects on science and the difference between theory and law and their effects on the production and development of scientific knowledge, they don’t have the same conceptions with accepted components of nature of science. Also findings of quantitative parts showed that in opinion of faculty members, curriculum dimensions are not based on the nature of science components in current state. Although in their opinion goals of curriculum are near to desired state in respect of having nature of science components. Also evaluation is furthest away from desired state. Based on the faculty members’ opinions, for curriculum to be in the direction of nature of science components, it must have the most attention to implementation and evaluation. Findings also showed that in students’ opinion, goals of curriculum are more based on the nature of science than other dimensions of curriculum and evaluation of curriculum in current state is less based on the nature of science components than other three dimensions. In their opinions, there are the most gaps between current and desired state in evaluation.
Language: Persian with one-page summary in English.
Thesis (Full Reference)
Soltani, Asghar (2011): Explanation of Science Education Curriculum Characteristics Based on the Nature of Science Components. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Isfahan.
Correspondence
Asghar Soltani University of Isfahan Faculty of Education and Psychology
Department of Education, Azadi Square, Isfahan, Iran
CellPhone: +989392093549-+989132093549
Contact: Asghar.soltani.k@gmail.com
