The impact of research process presentations on secondary school student’s perception of scientific credibility and tentativeness

Supporting students in understanding how scientific knowledge is developed, including its inherent uncertainty, is a key challenge in science education. The research presented here investigated how the formatting of scientific practices and the representation of a scientist’s thought processes influence secondary school student’s perceptions of the scientist’s credibility, the research’s credibility, and the tentativeness of findings. Scientific practices were presented either as cookbook style (research without rationale) or with scientific reasoning style (explaining why each step was taken). The scientist’s thought process was shown authentically (science-in-the-making, with visible deliberations) or canonized (ready-made science, settled steps). Two field studies using bat ecology videos were conducted. In Study 1 (N = 148), students viewed one of four videos corresponding to the experimental conditions. No main effects were found, but perceived tentativeness negatively correlated with both researcher and findings credibility across all conditions. Study 2 (N = 607) was a full-day school intervention with the same four videos in a constructive learning format. A main effect indicated that findings were perceived as more tentative when presented as science-in-the-making. Again, negative correlations between tentativeness and credibility were observed in all conditions. These results inform the design of educational media that realistically portray scientific inquiry and help students develop a nuanced view of science as dynamic and provisional. They also point to a potential trade-off: While authentic representations can foster epistemic insight, they may simultaneously lower perceived credibility.