CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background Humans have always been curious about the world around them. The inquiring and imaginative human mind has responded to the wonder and awe of nature in different ways. One kind of response from the earliest times has been to observe the physical and biological environment carefully, look for any meaningful patterns and relations, make and use new tools to interact with nature, and build conceptual models to understand the world. This human endeavor is science. Biology basically interprets the nature of science aimed at developing a framework for thinking about how science can be used to educate the public to use advances in science and technology wisely. Biology as a science is an

objective, logical, and repeatable attempt to understand the principles and forces operating in the natural universe. Good science is not constant, but should be viewed as an ongoing process of testing and evaluation. One of the hoped-for benefits of students taking a biology course is that they will become more familiar with the process of science. In this recent year, science education emphasizes teaching science for all, with the ultimate goal of developing scientific literacy. In this view, science instruction must go beyond simply teaching science as a body of knowledge. Todays teachers are challenged to engage students in a broader view of science, one that addresses the development of scientific knowledge and the very nature of the knowledge itself (National Research Council, 1996). Meaningful learning is inseparable due to solving the problem. Greenwalld (2000) stated that learning science with any strategy must emphasize the student on criticism, problem solving, and critical thinking. It will encourage students to do exploration, finding meaningful concept, and developed a scientific skills, includes efforts to build curiosity, open-minded, learn from experiences.

Unfortunately, decades of research has demonstrated that teachers and students alike do not possess appropriate understandings of the nature of science (Lederman, 2007). This lack of understanding negatively impacts what teachers teach about science and what students learn. Science also too often taught as a subject with little connection to the real world. In this view of teaching, hypotheses are able to guess, prove the theory. It is no wonder that so many students fail to see any connection between what they learn in science class and what they know about the real world.

1.2.

Identification of Problem 1. Biology as a science is an objective, logical, and repeatable attempt to understand the principles and forces operating in the natural universe. 2. Good science is not constant, but should be viewed as an ongoing process of testing and evaluation. 3. Science education emphasizes biological teaching to develop students scientific literacy. 4. There is not possessing appropriate understandings of the nature of science.

1.3.

Problem Scope There are many things related to the essence of biology and biology

education in the context of nature as a science. But this paper is limited in the definition of biology, biology as a science, nature of science, and the essence of NOS in biology and biology education to create students scientific literacy.

1.4.

Problem Question 1. What is biology and biology education? 2. What is nature of science? 3. How biological learning build students nature of science and students scientific literacy?

1.5.

Objectives 1. To know the definition of biology and biology education. 2. To understand the nature of science. 3. To know how biological learning build students nature of science and students scientific literacy.

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Definition of Biology Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Modern biology is a vast and eclectic field, composed of many branches and sub-disciplines. However, despite the broad scope of biology, there are certain general and unifying concepts within it which govern all study and research, consolidating it into single, coherent field. Biology generally recognizes the cell as the basic unit of life, genes as the basic unit of heredity, and evolution as the engine that propels the synthesis and creation of new species. It is also understood today that all organisms survive by consuming and transforming energy and by regulating their internal environment to maintain a stable and vital condition. (Wikipedia, Biology) 2.2. Definition of Biology education Biology education is the branch of knowledge which contains methods about how the biological learning takes place. Learning is the most important activity
in the overall educational process at school. It means the success of educational goals is depends on how learning process take place effectively. Learning is an activity with awareness looking for purpose. The purpose of learning is the change in the individual in cognitive, affective and psychomotor aspect.

Meaningful learning is inseparable due to solving the problem. Greenwalld (2000) stated that learning science with any strategy must emphasize the student on criticism, problem solving, and critical thinking. It will encourage students to do exploration, finding meaningful concept, and developed a scientific skills, includes efforts to build curiosity, open-minded, learn from experiences. Biology is basically the subjects that tend to be a mistaken understanding of the concept and became memorizing lessons. Most students can memorize the material being taught well, but do not understand the intent contained in it. In addition, students are not able to relate what they learn with how that knowledge will be used.

2.3. Biology as a Science Biology as a science is a methodical approach to studying the natural world. Science asks basic questions, such as how does the world work? How did the world come to be? What was the world like in the past, what is it like now, and what will it be like in the future? These questions are answered using observation, testing, and interpretation through logic. Most scientists would not say that science leads to an understanding of the truth. Science is a determination of what is most likely to be correct at the current time with the evidence at our disposal. Scientic explanations can be inferred from conrmable data only, and observations and experiments must be reproducible and veriable by other individuals. In other words, good science is based on information that can be measured or seen and veried by other scientists. Science is, however, a human endeavor and is subject to personal prejudices, misapprehensions, and bias. Over time, however, repeated reproduction and verification of observations and experimental results can overcome these weaknesses. That is one of the strengths of the scientific process. (Christine V. McLelland, 2006) 2.4. Nature of Science Science is a dynamic, expanding body of knowledge covering ever new domains of experience. As with many complex things in life, the scientific method is perhaps more easily discerned than defined. But broadly speaking, it involves several interconnected steps: observation, looking for regularities and patterns, making hypotheses, devising qualitative or mathematical models, deducing their consequences; verification or falsification of theories through observations and controlled experiments, and thus arriving at the principles, theories and laws governing the physical world. There is no strict order in these various steps. Sometimes, a theory may suggest a new experiment; at other times an experiment may suggest a new theoretical model. Speculation and conjecture also have a place in science, but ultimately, a scientific theory, to be acceptable, must be verified by relevant observations and/or experiments. The laws of science are never viewed as fixed eternal truths. Even the most established and universal laws

of science are always regarded as provisional, subject to modification in the light of new observations, experiments and analysis. The methodology of science and its demarcation from other fields continue to be a matter of philosophical debate. Its professed value neutrality and objectivity have been subject to critical sociological analyses. Moreover, while science is at its best in understanding simple linear systems of nature, its predictive or explanatory power is limited when it comes to dealing with nonlinear complex systems of nature. Yet, with all its limitations and failings, science is unquestionably the most reliable and powerful knowledge system about the physical world known to humans. But science is ultimately a social endeavour. Science is knowledge and knowledge is power. With power can come wisdom and liberation. Or, as sometimes happens unfortunately, power can breed arrogance and tyranny. Science has the potential to be beneficial or harmful, emancipative or oppressive. History, particularly of the twentieth century, is full of examples of this dual role of science. How do we ensure that science plays an emancipative role in the world? The key to this lies in a consensual approach to issues threatening human survival today. This is possible only through information, transparency and a tolerance for multiple viewpoints. In a progressive forward-looking society, science can play a truly liberating role, helping people out of the vicious circle of poverty, ignorance and superstition. In a democratic political framework, the possible aberrations and misuse of science can be checked by the people themselves. Science, tempered with wisdom, is the surest and the only way to human welfare. This conviction provides the basic rationale for science education (National Council of Educational Research and Training, 2006). The nature of science is a multifaceted concept that defies simple definition. It includes aspects of history, sociology, and philosophy of science, and has variously been defined as science epistemology, the characteristics of scientific knowledge, and science as a way of knowing. Perhaps the best way to understand the nature of science is to first think about scientific literacy. Current science education reform efforts emphasize scientific literacy as the principal goal

of science education. Reform documents describe scientific literacy as the ability to understand media accounts of science, to recognize and appreciate the contributions of science, and to be able to use science in decision-making on both everyday and socio-scientific issues. Science educators have identified three domains of science that are critical to developing scientific literacy. The first of these is the body of scientific knowledge. Of the three, this is the most familiar and concrete domain, and includes the scientific facts, concepts, theories, and laws typically presented in science textbooks. Scientific methods and processes comprise the second domain, which describes the wide variety of methods that scientists use to generate the knowledge contained in the first domain. Science curricula delve into this domain when they address process skills and scientific methodology. (Randy L. Bell, 2009)

Figure 2.1. Three domains of science that are critical to developing scientific literacy

2.5. The concept of Nature of Science 1. Tentativeness. All scientific knowledge is subject to change in light of new evidence and new ways of thinking even scientific laws change. New ideas in science are often received with a degree of skepticism, especially if they are contrary to wellestablished scientific concepts. On the other hand, scientific knowledge, once generally accepted, can be robust and durable. Many ideas in science have survived repeated challenges, and have remained largely unchanged. For hundreds of years. Thus, it is reasonable to have confidence in scientific knowledge, even while realizing that such knowledge may change in the future. 2. Empirical evidence. Scientific knowledge relies heavily upon empirical evidence. Empirical refers to both quantitative and qualitative data. While some scientific concepts are highly theoretical in that they are derived primarily from logic and reasoning, ultimately, all scientific ideas must conform to observational or experimental data to be considered valid. 3. Observation and inference. Science involves more than the accumulation of countless observations rather, it is derived from a combination of observation and inference. Observation refers to using the five senses to gather information, often augmented with technology. Inference involves developing explanations from observations and often involves entities that are not directly observable. 4. Scientific laws and theories. In science, a law is a succinct description of relationships or patterns in nature consistently observed in nature. Laws are often expressed in mathematical terms. A scientific theory is a well-supported explanation of natural phenomena. Thus, theories and laws constitute two distinct types of knowledge. One can never change into the other. On the other hand, they are similar in that they both have substantial supporting evidence and are widely accepted by scientists. Either can change in light of new evidence.

5. Scientific methods. There is no single universal scientific method. Scientists employ a wide variety of approaches to generate scientific knowledge, including observation, inference, experimentation, and even chance discovery. 6. Creativity. Creativity is a source of innovation and inspiration in science. Scientists use creativity and imagination throughout their investigations. 7. Objectivity and subjectivity. Scientists tend to be skeptical and apply self-checking mechanisms such as peer review in order to improve objectivity. On the other hand, intuition, personal beliefs, and societal values all play significant roles in the development of scientific knowledge. Thus, subjectivity can never be (nor should it be) completely eliminated from the scientific enterprise.

2.6. Why Teach about the Nature of Science? The teaching of nature of science in biology as a way of thinking relates to build students scientific skills. In this context, science is not just seen as a collection of facts, but science can be tested and beneficial for everyone in his life. Science educators have promoted a variety of justifications for teaching about the nature of science. Teaching about the nature of science to increased student interest as well as developing awareness of the impacts of science in society. Perhaps the most basic justification for teaching the nature of science is simply to help students develop accurate views of what science is, including the types of questions science can answer, how science differs from other disciplines, and the strengths and limitations of scientific knowledge. Here the biology education has role to build students nature of science and students science literacy (hands on, minds on). Through the investigation and inquiry, students will learn the content and course concept by having them explores a question and develop and research a hypothesis. Thus, giving students more opportunity to reflect on their own learning, gain a deeper understanding of the course concepts in an integrated fashion, and become better critical thinkers (Lane, 2007). Schrenker reported that

inquiry training resulted in increased understanding of science, greater productivity in critical thinking, and skills for obtaining and analyzing information (Joyce, 2003).

Is nature of science has been implemented biological education in Indonesia? If we look the content of material in our high school and compared to the abroad school, the abroad school have deeper material and learning process design as an inquiry process, makes them get better skills and understanding. The research of PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) shows that Indonesia is in lower 10 from 65 countries. The result of research of TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) also shows that Indonesian learner has very low level in (1) understanding the complex information, (2) theory, analysis and problem solving, (3) the skills of using the apparatus, procedure, and doing investigation. It indicates that the learning process less involving students in investigation and experiment, and this kind of teaching misses a tremendous opportunity to give all students the problemsolving, communication, and thinking skills. The students so often seem bored and disengaged from learning.

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CHAPTER III CONCLUSION

The conclusions which can be made from the explanation above are:

1. Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology education is the branch of knowledge which contains methods about how the biological learning takes place. 2. Biology as a nature of science (NOS) is categorized science as the way of thinking. It has several concept, namely Science is tentative, means Science is not the constant knowledge that unable to change. Science is empiric, means the truth in knowledge is able to tested and change. Science as a result of human creativity, means human able to create the knowledge, thus human also able to develop the knowledge by their new invention and science as cumulative idea of human. 3. Since biology is a tentative and empiric knowledge, learning process through investigation and inquiry provide the students with a chance to learn the content and course concept by having them explores a question and develop and research a hypothesis. Thus, giving students more opportunity to reflect on their own learning, gain a deeper understanding of the course concepts in an integrated fashion, and become better critical thinkers. Through their activity with using hand and brain (hands on, minds on) the scientific literacy able to build and the students scientific skill also able to form.

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REFERENCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology http://www2.estrellamountain.edu/faculty/farabee/biobk/biobookintro.html Joyce, Bruce., (2003), Models of Teaching Fifth Edition, Prentice Hall of India, NewDelhi. Christine V. McLelland, 2006, the nature of scienc and the scientific Method. Geological Society of America. Lane, Jill., (2007), Inquiry-based Learning,. University Park, PA 16802, Penstate. www. Schreyerinstitute.psu.edu (accessing on January 6th 2012) Lederman, N.G. (1999). Teachers understanding of the nature of science and classroom practice: Factors that facilitate or impede the relationship. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 36, 916-929. National Council of Educational Research and Training, 2006. New Delhi . available at http://www.ncert.nic.in/new_ncert/ncert/rightside/links/pdf/focus_group/science.p df National Research Council. (1996). National science education Washington, DC: National Academic Press. standards.

Randy L. Bell Teaching the Nature of Science: Three Critical Questions . available at http://ngl.cengage.com/assets/downloads/ngsci_pro0000000028/am_bell_teach_n at_sci_scl22-0449a_.pdf

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