A comparative study of history of science, philosophy of science, and combined instruction on students’ understanding of the nature of science in a Chinese high school context

Despite the empirical evidence for the role of the history and philosophy of science in science education, the independent effects of history and philosophy of science courses have not been comparatively studied. Hence, this study implemented three elective courses—philosophy of science, history of science, and history and philosophy of science—in Chinese high schools to explore their impact on students’ understanding of the nature of science, as conceptualized in the Family Resemblance Approach. It addresses the following question: to what extent do these courses influence students’ scientific perceptions in both cognitive-epistemic and social-institutional systems?

Pre- and post-course questionnaires were used to assess changes in students’ views and compare the effects across the three instructional approaches. The results of this study showed that the philosophy of science course helped students improve their cognitive-epistemic systems. Meanwhile, students who took the other two courses improved their understanding of the nature of science in terms of both cognitive-epistemic and social-institutional systems.

The results of this study provide valuable insights into the connection between the history and philosophy of science in the teaching process and offer practical implications for science education. However, given the small sample size and the non-random assignment of instructional groups, the findings should be interpreted with caution and warrant further investigation in more diverse and representative contexts. This work was supported by the Key Project of Ningbo Municipal Education Science Planning (Grant no. 2025YZD020); General Teaching Reform Project of Ningbo University of Finance & Economics (Grant no.

Ningbo University of Finance & Economics, Ningbo, China The author declares no competing interests. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Ningbo University of Finance & Economics. The study was conducted exclusively in China and did not involve research conducted in multiple countries.

All procedures involving human participants were conducted in accordance with relevant institutional guidelines and regulations and the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. As all participants were high school students and minors, informed consent was obtained from the participating students as well as from their parents or legal guardians prior to their participation. Participation was voluntary, and the confidentiality and anonymity of all participants were protected throughout the study.

Informed consent was obtained from all participants involved in the study by the Ethics Committee at Ningbo University of Finance & Economics. All participants were provided with detailed information about the study, including their right to withdraw at any time without penalty. Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.