WEEK 6 - MISCONCEPTIONS AND MYTHS OF NATURE OF SCIENCE

MISCONCEPTIONS OF NATURE OF SCIENCE

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        A misconception is an opinion or a view that is incorrect based on faulty understanding. There is a lot of misconception about the nature of science such as science is complete, or science ideas are absolute and unchanging. A misunderstanding can come from a wide range of subjects. Students mostly have this kind of misconception because they mostly only learn science through a textbook or doing an experiment in a lab. Misconceptions also may come from students with a limited understanding of scientific principles and trying to make sense of the world around them. This can cause the students to easily believe the incorrect facts as they are full of their own idea or theory about the world. However, students should learn why the misconceptions are false and what is the truth because it is a foundation on which learning and understanding are developed.

           Thus, it is important for the teachers to correct them and explain the new concept correctly and scientifically to the students regarding the misconceptions. Teachers must make every effort to avoid confusing, vague, or incorrect explanations to prevent further propagation of misconceptions in science. If the teachers cannot answer students' question, then they need to do the research before answering the question. As a student, we need to know that we can also observe the natural world using our five senses to gain new knowledge about science. Hence, we as a student will see science in a different side and not only as a difficult subject.

MYTHS IN SCIENCE

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        Then, myth is a widely held but false belief or idea. Myth is a traditional story that represents a belief in some fact or phenomenon of experiences such as the origin of the world or people. We believe the myth because it makes the subject more interesting, but it only held us from knowing the truth. For example, starting from hypothesis then become theories which in turn become a law. The truth is a theory does not change into law even when there is evidence. The theory explains observations that are gathered during the scientific process while the law is a description of an observed phenomenon in a natural world. Student nowadays cannot differentiate between hypothesis, theory and law because they still think that these three relate to each other. Therefore, we need to know the truth about the myths of science to fix our idea or opinion about science.