Abstract

Recently, a "Family resemblance approach-to-Nature of Science" (FRA-to-NOS) has been suggested, which describes science from the viewpoint that various areas of science are similar to families with domain specificity along with common characteristics. This reinforced the social aspect from the perspective of the existing nature of science, and the ‘reconceptualized family similarity’ approach emerged by incorporating this "family similarity approach" into science education. The purpose of the study is to measure the effect of the education program, which I developed to improve students’ understanding of RFN. According to the result of Mcnemar test I performed on answer written by students), the correct answer rate for the 'scientific knowledge' area was low, but the correct answer rate for the 'goals and values' and 'scientific function' areas was partially improved at the significance level of 5%. A paired t-test was also conducted at the 95% confidence level on students, who were classified into three groups according to the level of academic achievement in the previous semester. The test result shoewed that the change in perception of the 'scientific function' area was clear. In particular, it was found that the change in perception of the nature of science in the middle-level student group was significant.