The effects of the activities about magnetism and electro-magnetic induction on the high school students? views related to the nature of science

The aim of this study is to design nature of science activities on magnetism and electro-magnetic induction and to examine the effect on the high school 12th grade students? understanding of nature of science. Since the aim of this research is not which nature of science teaching method will be more effective; but to teach the nature of science in an efficient way, historical and explicit-reflective approaches that are thought to be more effective were used in this study. In order to teach the elements of the nature of science to students, six different activities were prepared on magnetism and electro-magnetic induction. The activities were developed in a way that will consist the elements of nature of science to be taught from kindergarten period to K-12. These are: the tentative tature of scientific knowledge, empirical basis, subjectivity, partially the creative and imaginative nature of scientific knowledge, the social and cultural embeddedness of scientific knowledge, the difference between observation and deduction, the function of the scientific laws and theories and the relation among them. After the activities were designed, they were examined by specialists on their subjects and then after a revision were developed with reference to this examination. In order to evaluate the success of the activities that were developed during research, the activities were practiced on 5 students in 2009-2010 academic year 1st term. In the research qualitative and quantitative data collection tools were used together. A week before and after the activities were practised in order to determine the nature of science profiles of students? VNOS-C questionnaire composed of open-ended questions was applied. In order to examine the answers given in a better way and to get more reliable results interviews were made after the questionnaire. At the same time in order to detect the views on scientific knowledge, attitude on the scientific knowledge questionnaire was applied. All the interviews and activities made with students were recorded. The activities were applied in a sequence designed by the researcher. If the students are expected to have preliminary information to reach the elements of the nature of science, the activities were implemented after the subject was taught. Yet when it is aimed to teach the nature of science together with the concept as applicable to the content of the physics, the activity is implemented before a new subject is taught. The activities were applied in physics laboratory during six weeks, two hours a week, a period of 12 hours in total. The worksheets that reflect the deeds in activities and consist the things expected from students and reflective writings were used in evaluation. With regard to the answers of students they gave to pre and post tests, the profiles of the nature of science were formed and compared through constant comparative analysis. The nature of science profiles of the students were detected to be ?naive? before activities. It was determined that students are insistent on their mistaken views about the formation of the laws and theories especially during applications. They also had difficulty in changing their views on the creative nature of science applications, too.At the end of this researh, it was detected that students have reached to an informed level except for the element ?science is based on inference?. Moreover, the activities prepared with regard to a physics subject were efficient in developing the views of the students on the nature of science.Key words: The Nature of Science, Scientific Inquiry, Teaching Methods, Magnetism and Electro-Magnetic Induction.