Nature of Science FPLC Kincaid 2006-7

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Faculty Views of the Nature of Science at MCC for the Nature of Science Faculty and Professional Learning Community, Brad Kincaid, Center for Teaching and Learning & Life Science Department, Mesa Community College, Contact me

Sumary: My project is an examination of faculty views of the nature of science with the rationale that faculty views of the nature of science will affect what they relate to their students and ultimately student views of the nature of science. Data for this project come from a survey developed by researchers at ASU and administered to approximately 106 MCC faculty during the spring semester, 2006.

1 Nature of Science FPLC Background
2 Project Goals and Objectives
3 Project Rationale
4 Focus Course Information or Context for Project
5 Project Implementation and Assessment Methods
6 Project Results and Conclusions
7 Examples of student work
8 Reflection on My XYZ FPLC Experience
9 Annotated Reference List

Nature of Science FPLC Background

Problem

MCC has established scientific inquiry as one of our expected student outcomes.
As is generally the case nationwide, MCC students have fallen short of our expectations in this area of our outcomes assessments.
There is both a need and an opportunity to transform science education at MCC.

NOS FPLC Goal

The goal of our Nature of Science Faculty and Professional Learning Community is to promote the understanding and appreciation of the nature of science, technology, engineering and math by all students to enable them to be informed and productive citizens, professionals, and scientists of tomorrow.

Strategies

Our strategy will be to form a respected interdisciplinary group of STEM educators who will evaluate and revise our learning outcomes regarding the nature of science.
We will develop curriculum frameworks for achieving those learning outcomes.
We will then implement, assess and disseminate these frameworks across disciplines.
We will collaborate with ASU and Project Kaleidoscope to transform STEM education at MCC.
We will evaluate our strategy and contribute our model for empowering community college faculty to Project Kaleidoscope in Two-Year Colleges (PKALTYC).

Project Goals and Objectives

Goal

Determine faculty views of the nature of science (VNOS) and MCC and compare them to our understanding of the actual nature of science and to student views of the nature of science.

Objectives

Determine if VNOS varies among groups including discipline, employment type, etc.
Determine the dimensions of variation from our understanding of the actual nature of science

Hypotheses

Discipline affects VNOS.
Employment type affects VNOS.
Faculty VNOS affects student VNOS (don't know if I have enough data to test this, but I should be able to at least assess whether faculty and students share misconceptions about the nature of science).

Project Rationale

Discussions of NOS within our FPLC and with other colleagues suggest that there is wide variation in our views of NOS (VNOS). Our disciplinary experiences and education may be a factor in this variation. The expectation is that the strongest differences will be between science and non-science disciplines, but there may also be variation among the sciences. It is also possible that different programs placed different emphasis on the philosophical or procedural aspects of NOS. There is also the issue of how the language of science may be used in different disciplines or at different institutions.

The literature suggests that conducting a research project as a student does not result in better understanding of NOS. Rather explicit study of NOS is required for better understanding (reference in McComas). This may also apply to graduate and postgraduate research.

Reference in McComas suggested that faculty understanding of NOS affects student understanding of NOS. This is the strongest motivation for further consideration of faculty VNOS.

Focus Course Information or Context for Project

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Project Implementation and Assessment Methods

Project Results and Conclusions

Examples of student work

Reflection on My XYZ FPLC Experience

Annotated Reference List

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Categories: FPLC | Nature of Science | 2006-7