Scientific Inquiry

Nature of Science

By Cyril A. Constantino

According to Lederman (2007), the phrase “nature of science” typically refers to the
epistemology of science, science as a way of knowing, or the values and beliefs inherent to the
development of scientific knowledge. Furthermore, it is a critical part of scientific literacy that
improves the students' quality of understanding science concepts and empower them to make
informed decisions about scientifically-based personal and societal issues.
McDonald and Dominguez (2005) stated that the process of scientific investigation and
the developmental nature of knowledge acquisition in science describes the nature of science.
Scientific literacy, according to them, plays an important role in various fields, including
mathematics, science and technology, aspects of human relations and also the nature of science.
Moreover, understanding the Nature of science and the ability of inquiry, from designing
experiments, collecting and analyzing data, to drawing conclusions from analyzing that data, is
an important part of scientific literacy
Is the understanding of the Nature of Science important for my learners? Definitely Yes!
Because when students learn what Science is, how it works in their lives and how scientists work
to make a better world. Then, our learners can develop an attitude, skills and values to become
curious and find ways to understand the world where they live. If they learn how scientists did
their investigations or experimentations and the results of it, they will realize that science is
valuable in their lives. Through understanding the nature of science, they will be able to learn
how Science ideas are communicated and they can link that knowledge with their everyday
decisions and actions.
In the point of view of Sir Paul Callaghan, a New Zealander professor, writer and
scientist, he observed that rich countries depend on high science and technology and that
countries need to invest mostly in these fields to maintain and improve their standard of living. In
this instance, we need more scientists, scientifically-literate people most especially the country's
leaders and a community that understands what science is being done and its purpose to everyday
living. Therefore, the country’s future prosperity depends mainly on students that will study
science or enter science related careers.
Moreover, according to the Department of Science and Technology Science Education
Institute, that learning of science is also important for the nation’s cultural development and
preservation of its cultural identity. Science is most useful to a nation when it is utilized to solve
its own problems and challenges, keeping a nation's cultural uniqueness and peculiarities intact.
Thus, in many countries, science teaching and learning is linked with culture.
However, in our current situation here in the Philippines, the expectations and skills
required to live successfully in a science and technology-based world and a knowledge-based
economy I may say is still very far. We still have varied problems of science education in the
country that need to be addressed.
In my opinion, if we want to achieved the expectations and skills required to live
successfully in a science and technology-based world and a knowledge-based economy here in
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our country. Our government, must prioritize and invest for our teachers. Because I believed that
quality of teachers, their teaching methods together with their educational materials being used
greatly affect influences students' perceptions to the nature of science. Another point is that if
teachers are well motivated and focused to teach, it is not far that students can understand the
meaning of nature of science at the correct level. In other words, teachers must really have ample
time in teaching not on doing a lot of ancillary tasks that makes teachers exhausted and losing
their energy to teach. Lastly,

Sources:
McDonald, J and Dominguez, L 2005 J. of Col Sci Teach, 35 18
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1747/1/012019/pdf
https://www.sei.dost.gov.ph/images/downloads/publ/sei_scibasic.pdf
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED543992.pdf