Educating Teachers To Better Understand the Processes, Nature, and Limits of Science

Research indicates that students and teachers at all grade levels have inaccurate understandings of what science is and how it works. Given the impact of science on society, the lack of public understanding of science should be a concern to us all.  In large part, the current confusions about evolution, global warming, stem cell research, and other aspects of science deemed by some as “controversial” are symptomatic of a general misunderstanding of what science is and what it is not. Too few of our citizens view science as a dynamic process through which we gain a reliable understanding of the natural world.  As a result, the public becomes vulnerable to misinformation and the very real benefits of science become obscured.

 Within our current curricula, we have the opportunity to adjust the lens through which our students perceive science – to embed the nature and process of science throughout all of our science teaching, from animal behavior and evolution to buoyancy and gravitation. Teaching only the facts leaves students without a clear understanding of what separates science from non-science, why scientific knowledge is trustworthy, and how they can leverage science in their everyday lives—and it prevents them from appreciating the creativity, exploration, dead-ends, and a-ha moments that inspire scientists.  

Understanding Science, a freely available NSF-funded resource developed by the University of California Museum of Paleontology, offers K-16 teachers an approach for incorporating the nature and process of science throughout their teaching, along with information and practical tools for implementing this approach.