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Nature of Science in the Science Curriculum and in Teacher Education Programs in the United States

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Abstract

This chapter considers the complex educational landscape in the United States and presents the results of an examination of the rationale for and history of the inclusion of nature of science (NOS) in the science curriculum, standards, and teacher education programs in the United States. The analysis begins with a definition of NOS and recommendations for its inclusion in school science and moves into a discussion of the context for the control of education in US K-12 schools (K-12 refers to public compulsory education in the United States which generally begins in kindergarten (K) at about age 5 and ends in grade 12 generally at age 17–18). A subsequent section of this chapter provides a detailed view of the nature of science in the most recent state standards resulting in a consensus recommendation for key NOS elements. A similar analysis tactic is applied to the new science education Framework for K-12 Science Education and the resulting Next Generation Science Standards. The chapter concludes with an examination of NOS in several key curriculum projects designed to incorporate this important topic.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The 12 key NOS elements were used to guide the search, but researchers were attentive to and noted all instances of NOS-related language found in thousands of lines of text in 51 documents. In these documents, more than 3400 instances of NOS were located and categorized.

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Acknowledgments

The author appreciates the many helpful suggestions offered by the anonymous reviewers. In addition the author acknowledges the extraordinary work of colleagues Drs. Carole Lee and Sophia Sweeney who helped to prepare the state-by-state NOS comparisons, Dr. Feng Jiang who assisted with the analysis of the new Framework using a specially designed computer model to discover incidences of NOS in text, and Dr. Lisa Wood who made important contributions to the section on teacher preparation standards as they relate to the inclusion of the nature of science. Needless to say, all errors, interpretations, opinions, and conclusions are the responsibility of the author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA

    William F. McComas

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  1. William F. McComas
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Correspondence to William F. McComas .

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  1. School of Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Michael R. Matthews

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McComas, W.F. (2014). Nature of Science in the Science Curriculum and in Teacher Education Programs in the United States. In: Matthews, M. (eds) International Handbook of Research in History, Philosophy and Science Teaching. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7654-8_61

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