https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/108431
type: CreativeWork
name: The Nature Of Scientific Explanation (NOSE): Using a philosophically guided framework to examine the nature and quality of scientific explanations constructed by freshman college students, science teachers, and practicing scientists
description: Issues regarding scientific explanation have been of interest to philosophers from Pre-Socratic times. The notion of scientific explanation is of interest not only to philosophers, but also to science educators as is clearly evident in the emphasis given to K-12 students’ construction of explanations in current national science education reform efforts – the Next Generation Science Standards NGSS (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Nonetheless, there is a dearth of research on conceptualizing explanation in science education. Scientific explanation seems to be ill-defined (or left undefined) among researchers, science teachers and, in turn, students (Braaten & Windschitl, 2010, p. 639). Guided by philosophical models of and approaches to explanation, this study proposed a framework – the Nature of Scientific Explanation (NOSE) – for assessing the type, nature and quality of scientific explanations. Furthermore, to establish the validity and usefulness of the NOSE framework, the study aimed to (a) examine college freshman science students’, secondary science teachers’, and practicing scientists’ explanations, (b) elucidate their perceptions of explanations and how they compare to the formal analytical NOSE framework and (c) characterize the nature of the criteria that participant students, teachers, and scientists deploy when assessing the “validity” of explanations. The following research questions guided the study: (1) How do college freshmen science students’, secondary science teachers’ and practicing scientists’ explanations fare when assessed using the NOSE framework? In other words, what is the nature (structural elements) and quality of participants’ scientific explanations when analyzed using the NOSE framework? (2) How do college freshmen science students’, secondary science teachers’ and practicing scientists’ explanations of scientific phenomena compare and contrast when analyzed using the NOSE framework? (3) What criteria do college freshmen science students, seco…
abstract: Issues regarding scientific explanation have been of interest to philosophers from Pre-Socratic times. The notion of scientific explanation is of interest not only to philosophers, but also to science educators as is clearly evident in the emphasis given to K-12 students’ construction of explanations in current national science education reform efforts – the Next Generation Science Standards NGSS (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Nonetheless, there is a dearth of research on conceptualizing explanation in science education. Scientific explanation seems to be ill-defined (or left undefined) among researchers, science teachers and, in turn, students (Braaten & Windschitl, 2010, p. 639). Guided by philosophical models of and approaches to explanation, this study proposed a framework – the Nature of Scientific Explanation (NOSE) – for assessing the type, nature and quality of scientific explanations. Furthermore, to establish the validity and usefulness of the NOSE framework, the study aimed to (a) examine college freshman science students’, secondary science teachers’, and practicing scientists’ explanations, (b) elucidate their perceptions of explanations and how they compare to the formal analytical NOSE framework and (c) characterize the nature of the criteria that participant students, teachers, and scientists deploy when assessing the “validity” of explanations. The following research questions guided the study: (1) How do college freshmen science students’, secondary science teachers’ and practicing scientists’ explanations fare when assessed using the NOSE framework? In other words, what is the nature (structural elements) and quality of participants’ scientific explanations when analyzed using the NOSE framework? (2) How do college freshmen science students’, secondary science teachers’ and practicing scientists’ explanations of scientific phenomena compare and contrast when analyzed using the NOSE framework? (3) What criteria do college freshmen science students, seco…
author: Alameh, Sahar
language: en
keywords: scientific explanation, philosophy of science, nature of science, nature of scientific explanation, explanation assessment framework
date published: 2020-10-07T20:59:26Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:48Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108431