Undergraduate science students' images of science

This article describes views about the nature of science held by a small sa mple of science students in their final year at the university. In a longit udinal interview study, 11 students were asked questions about the nature o f science during the time they were involved in project work. Statements ab out the nature of science were characterized and coded using a framework dr awing on aspects of the epistemology and sociology of science. The framewor k in this study has three distinct areas: the relationship between data and knowledge claims, the nature of lines of scientific enquiry, and science a s a social activity. The students in our sample tended to see knowledge cla ims as resting solely on empirical grounds, although some students mentione d social factors as also being important. Many of the students showed signi ficant development in their understanding of how lines of scientific enquir y are influenced by theoretical developments within a discipline, over the 5-8 month period of their project work. Issues relating to scientists worki ng as a community were underrepresented in the students' discussions about science. Individual students drew upon a range of views about the nature of science, depending on the scientific context being discussed. (C) 1999 Joh n Wiley & Sons, Inc.