과학의 본성에 대한 고등학생들의 견해

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to elicit high school students' views of the nature of science at ages 17 years. The survey subjects were 1,577 firsts of 18 high schools in southern part of Korea. Three research probes had been developed; that is, the scientific questions, the experiment, and the belief probe. Firstly, we have considered an aspect of how students characterize scientific activity and distinguish it from other activities. We did this by asking students to consider a range of questions and to judge those they considered to be scientific or not scientific, giving their reasons. Respondents tended to refer to three main features in justifying a classification of a question as a scientific question. Theses were empirical investigation, domain of phenomenon involving natural phenomena, and perceived personal and institutional characteristics of scientific work. Secondly, the experiment probe was designed to require students to elaborate on what they considered to be involved in an experiment. Students' judgements were based on two dimensions, the one was the nature of the finding out involved; that is, students referred to whether or not there was an investigative component involved. The other was the context of the activity; that is, whether the domain was perceived as scientific or whether the activity involved was associated with science. Finally, the belief probe explored the nature of the grounds students gave for accepting a scientific statement as true. In considering the overall picture, it is useful to divide the warrants based on evidence into two categories: those using direct perceptual evidence only, and those referring to more complex links between evidence and the given idea. Similarly, warrants based on authority fall into two groups: those based on blind acceptance of authority, and those which also provide some reasons for accepting the authority.