Everyday Thoughts about Nature : A Worldview Investigation of Important Concepts Students Use to Make Sense of Nature with Specific Attention of Science

The primary goal of this volume is to help readers understand how typical 9th-grade students and their science teachers think about nature or the natural world, and how their thoughts are related to science.

In pursuing this goal, the book raises a basic question about the purpose of science education for the public.

Should science education seek to educate "scientific thinkers" in the pattern of science teachers? Or, should science education seek to foster sound science learning within the matrices of various cultural perspectives?

By examining the ideas about nature held by a group of students and their science teachers, Cobern argues that the purpose of science education for the public is "to foster sound science learning within the matrices of various cultural perspectives".The author's two books, "World View Theory and Science Education Research" and now "Everyday Thoughts about Nature" provide complementary accounts of theoretical and empirical foundations for worldview theory in science education.

Graduate students and researchers should find both works useful.