Chinese Journal of Science Education

Abstract

This study followed a design of collaborative action research. A set of teaching materials, workbook assessment, and related videotapes were edited for use with students in their General Education life science class. The instructional approach utilized dialogues and small cooperative groups to investigate the change of students' interest in general education, scientific attitude, understanding of the nature of science, growth of critical thinking, and general attitudes toward humanity and soci ety. The results indicated that after learning with History of Science approach, (1) students' attitude toward learning changed from indifference to enthusiasm. Moreover, on the final open-ended questions related to perceptions of learning, 94.4% of the s tudents expressed the view that the instructional approach enhanced their motivation and interests; (2) There was a significant difference (p = .034*) between the pre- and post-SAI II. The final open-ended questions related to perceptions of learning indi cated that 89% of the students reported a positive influence in their scientific attitude; (3) There was a significant effect (p = .001**) on students' understanding of the nature of science. The analysis of interview transcriptions showed that students' understanding of the nature of science became more post-positivist during instruction. In addition, the final open-ended questions on perceptions of learning indicated that 89% of the students claimed the History of Science Approach improved their underst andings of the nature of science; (4) There was a significant difference in the pre- and post-workbook-assessments of cooperative learning groups (p = .0001***). The questions related to learning perceptions indicated that 91.7% of the students felt that their critical thinking and value reflection improved.

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