Large-scale exploration of pupils' understanding of the nature of science

This article reports on a questionnaire study of British pupils' understanding of several aspects of the nature of science. The questions had been extensively explored by interview before being administered to a large sample of pupils aged 15 years (Year 10, Grade 9). From this information, it was possible to explore pupils' ideas about what ''scientists'' do, their more general knowledge about theories and how they change, and their impressions of how theory and experiment interact in the school science which they had experienced. Our results show some well-known features, such as the powerful effect of the individual classroom teacher. However, they also document important new effects. These involve the interesting subsamples of pupils who have: (a) understood the explanatory nature of the scientific endeavor; and (b) the much smaller sample who are beginning to understand the role of imagination and modeling in the use of scientific theory. The administration of the questionnaire to smaller samples of older and younger pupils provides valuable additional evidence which places the understanding of Year 10 pupils in a developmental context. This also has important implications for school science teaching. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.