Reading Adapted Scientific Literature: A Theoretical and Qualitative Assessment of its Potential for Promoting an Understanding of Nature of Science

Reading authentic scientific literature is expected to have many positive effects on students, including the communication of various aspects about nature of science. Many different approaches are discussed, e.g., using a research article unchanged, adding comments and explanations to an article, or changing and adapting it. Common to all approaches is the underlying premise that the characteristic properties of scientific literature can promote nature of science in educational settings. To support this premise, this article first links selected structural and rhetorical features of scientific literature to aspects of the nature of science. We then report on our qualitative study of how reading an adaptation of a scientific review affects pre-service teachers' understanding of nature of science. The examined features of scientific literature point to aspects of nature of science. After our intervention, we observed a shift in participants’ perception of the uncertainty of scientific knowledge, leading to a more accurate understanding, while changes on the empirical nature of scientific knowledge and as the subjectivity of scientists improved primarily among individual participants. From both a theoretical and an empirical point of view, our findings collectively suggest that engaging with authentic scientific literature in form of adapted literature can effectively promote an understanding of nature of science.