Effect of authentic research experiences on nature of science beliefs

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between authentic research experiences and the nature of science (NOS) beliefs of graduate students. Fifty graduate students employed as assistants at a large Midwestern University completed the Views on Science and Education Questionnaire developed by Chen (2006), a survey of their research experiences, and demographic information. Measures were taken to assess the graduate students NOS beliefs, the number of research experiences, the types of activities engaged in during the research experiences, and the epistemic demand of the graduate students’ research activities. Descriptive statistics were presented and discussed. The results were analyzed using a Pearson correlation to determine the relationship between number of research hours and NOS beliefs, as well as the number of types of research experiences and NOS beliefs. The results were also analyzed using a multivariate step wise regression, with the epistemic demand of the research experience as one of the predictor variables and NOS beliefs as the criterion variables, to determine whether the nature of the research experience affects the relationship between research experiences and NOS beliefs. Implications of the findings and limitations of the research were discussed.