How to Change Students‘ Conceptions of the Epistemology of Science

This paper is subdivided into two sections: In Part I empirical results of students‘ epistemological conceptions of laws, hypotheses, theories, and models are presented as well as their ideas of the pathway of scientific discovery. These results are discussed in relation to research results of different recent publications. In Part II an outline and analysis of a two-year program for explicitly teaching epistemology in a physics course (grade 11-13) is given.

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