Representations of the Nature of Science in Curriculum Goals of China’s Chemistry Curriculum Standards: A Cross-Edition Comparison (2001–2022)

The issue of how to reveal the Nature of Science (NOS) in science education has long been an important topic in international science education discourse. To examine how NOS is represented in China’s Compulsory Education Chemistry Curriculum Standards (CECCS), thereby providing educators with insights for understanding and implementing NOS in teaching, this study compares the evolving curriculum goals across three editions of the standards issued over the past two decades, aiming to understand the trends of curriculum reform. Based on the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) framework, we performed a statistical analysis of NOS categories in each edition. Then, using text mining techniques, we qualitatively interpreted the textual differences behind the observed changes in the NOS frequency. Finally, we quantitatively compared the connections among the NOS categories through Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA). The findings show a significant increase in the frequency of the NOS-related coding. This growth is mainly manifested in the addition of numerous expressions that reflect specific epistemic perspectives on the basic statements of general chemical concepts. Moreover, the analysis of the connections of different NOS categories reveals a notable strengthening in their interrelatedness, with particularly close ties between the cognitive-epistemic and socio-institutional systems. These results indicate the growing emphasis on NOS in the curriculum, suggesting that teachers should not only focus on implementation of cognitive-epistemic elements such as scientific knowledge and practices but also emphasize how these cognitive dimensions influence aspects of socio-institutional systems.