Nature of Science FPLC Ewing 2006-7
From CTLpedia
My Teaching Project for the Nature of Science Faculty and Professional Learning Community, Ann Ewing, Psychology, Mesa Community College, Contact me (mailto:ewing@mail.mc.maricopa.edu)
Summary: My project is designed to measure initial views of psychology students on the nature of science, then introduce some classroom activities to demonstrate the nature of science and finally retest my students to see if there has been any change during the semester in their perception of the nature of science.
NOS FPLC Background
Project Goals and Objectives
Psychology, as a field of study, struggles to be accepted by the general public and the scientific community as a legitimate scientific field. One of my goals is to become more familiar with the literature on the nature of science so that I can understand how other scientific fields define science as it relates to their discipline. One goal is to assess my psychology students' perception of the nature of science at the beginning of the semester. I will then expose them to several articles and exercises that are designed to help them explore ideas about the nature of science. At the end of the semester I will again evaluate their perceptions about science to assess any change that may have occurred.s.
Focus Course Information or Context for Project
The two Psychology courses that I am assessing include Social Psychology (Psy 250) and Statistics (Psy 230). Students were given a pretest at the beginning of the semester and will be given a posttest at the end of the semester.
Project Rationale
The project is designed to 1) assess what the perceptions of Psychology students are in relation to the nature of science and 2) see if thoses perceptions change significantly as a result of experiencing exposure to specific articles and experiences.
Project Implementation and Assessment Methods
Implementation of this project in the Social Psychology class will take the form of exposure of students to two articles followed by a group project. One of the articles describes the characteristics of a Science versus a pseudoscience (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, ) The second article (McComas, 1998) described elements of the NOS and discuss 14 myths associated with NOS education. Students were then assigned a small group project to use the principles of persuasion that had recently been taught in class to argue that Psychology qualifies as a science, according to the criteria proposed in the articles. The goal of the project is twofold: application of the principles of persuasion and exploration of the NOS as it relates to the field of psychology. Students' ideas will be recorded at the end of the semester and change in their perceptions of NOS, if any, will be assessed.
Project Results
Project Results and Conclusions
Examples of student work
Reflection on My NOS FPLC Experience
Annotated Reference List
Hockenbury, D. H.& Hockenbury, S. E.(2006). Pseudoscience in the New Millennium: Here's to Your Health. A paper presented at Evening Lecture Series in Psychology, February 23, 2006, Mesa Community College, Mesa,Arizona.
McComas, W. F. (1998). The Principal Elements of the Nature of Science: Dispelling the Myths in McComas, W. (ed)'The Nature of Science in Science Education. Rationales and Strategies'.
