The effects of 'science history based chemist inquiry program' on the understanding toward nature of science, scientific attitudes, and science career orientation of scientifically gifted high school students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop 'Science History Based Chemist Inquiry Program' for the science-gifted in high school and investigated the application effects on the understanding toward the nature of science, scientific attitudes, and science career orientation. This study was conducted with one class of 17 scientifically gifted high school students, and the 'Science History Based Chemist Inquiry Program' was applied during 22 class hours. The results of this study were as follows: First, the science gifted students' understanding toward the nature of science showed a statistically significant improvement (approximate significance probability .005). Property of the scientific model, sub-domain of the nature of science, is significantly improved (approximate significance probability .029). This result show that 'Science History Based Chemist Inquiry Program' can improve the scientifically gifted high school students' perception about nature of science. Second, the scientifically gifted students' scientific attitude wasn't changed significantly. However, the openness and creativity in the sub-domains of the scientific attitude showed a statistically significant improvement (p <.05).