新型コロナウイルスの事例を通して「科学の本質」を学ぶ―市民が情報発信を担う時代に―

抄録

The nature of science (NOS) refers to the various aspects of scientific knowledge that are associated with how scientific knowledge is generated. It is considered to be an essential part of scientific knowledge itself, and has been introduced in many national curricula. However, it has yet to be introduced into the science curriculum in Japan. Indeed, the lack of Japanese students’ understanding of NOS has been known for over two decades. In this research, COVID-19 was chosen as a theme to examine its potential to illustrate NOS in a familiar manner. Lederman’s NOS aspects were used as a framework for analysis. The results demonstrated that a variety of COVID-19 related topics, such as aerosol infection, vaccine development, and mathematical modelling, serve as excellent sources to demonstrate various aspects of NOS, including its empirical nature, the difference between observation and inference, the social and cultural embeddedness of science, and the involvement of creativity and imagination.