Secondary school students' reasoning about science and personhood

Journal article

Billingsley, B. and Nassaji, M. 2021. Secondary school students' reasoning about science and personhood. Science & Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-021-00199-x

Publication dates
Authors	Billingsley, B. and Nassaji, M.
Abstract	Scientific advances, genetics, neuroscience and artificial intelligence, present many challenges to religious and popular notions of personhood. This paper reports the first large-scale study on students' beliefs about the interactions between science and widely held beliefs about personhood. The paper presents findings from a questionnaire survey ( = 530) administered to English secondary school students (age 15-16) in which their beliefs and concepts regarding personhood and the position of science were investigated. The survey was motivated in part by an interview study and a previous, smaller survey which revealed that many students struggle to reconcile their beliefs with what they suppose science to say and also that some have reluctantly dismissed the soul as a 'nice story' which is incompatible with scientific facts. The results from this larger-scale survey indicate that a majority of the students believe in some form of soul. Even so, and regardless of whether or not they identified themselves as religious, most students expressed a belief that human persons cannot be fully explained scientifically, a position that some students perceived as a partial rejection of what it means to hold a scientific worldview. [Abstract copyright: © The Author(s) 2021.]
Keywords	Secondary school students; Teenagers; Reasoning; Science education; Personhood; Self
Year	2021
Journal	Science & Education
ISSN	0926-7220
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-021-00199-x
Official URL	https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11191-021-00199-x
Online	13 Apr 2021
Publication process dates
Accepted	28 Jan 2021
Deposited	05 May 2021
Publisher's version	Billingsley-Nassaji2021_Article_SecondarySchoolStudentsReasoni.pdf License CC BY 4.0 File Access Level Open
Page range	1-25

Permalink -

https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/item/8xq1v/secondary-school-students-reasoning-about-science-and-personhood

Download files

Publisher's version

	Billingsley-Nassaji2021_Article_SecondarySchoolStudentsReasoni.pdf
License: CC BY 4.0
File access level: Open

56
total views
31
total downloads
1
views this month
1
downloads this month

Export as

Related outputs

Epistemic insight: Teaching students about the nature of knowledge, science, religion and beyond

Lawson, F. and Billingsley, B. Epistemic insight: Teaching students about the nature of knowledge, science, religion and beyond.

Preparing students to engage with science‐ and technology‐related misinformation: The role of epistemic insight

Billingsley, B. and Heyes, J. 2022. Preparing students to engage with science‐ and technology‐related misinformation: The role of epistemic insight. The Curriculum Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.190

Secondary school students’ perceptions of scientific and religious positions on miracles

Billingsley, B., Taber, K. and Nassaji, M. 2021. Secondary school students’ perceptions of scientific and religious positions on miracles. Science and Christian Belief.

Secondary students' values and perceptions of science-related careers: responses to vignette-based scenarios

Taber, K., Billingsley, B. and Riga, F. 2021. Secondary students' values and perceptions of science-related careers: responses to vignette-based scenarios. SN Social Sciences. 1 (5), p. 104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00130-9

Covid-19 as an opportunity to teach epistemic insight: findings from exploratory workshops on Covid-19 and science with students aged 15-17 in England

Billingsley, B., Heyes, J. and Nassaji, M. 2021. Covid-19 as an opportunity to teach epistemic insight: findings from exploratory workshops on Covid-19 and science with students aged 15-17 in England. SN Social Sciences. 1 (11), p. 260. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00243-1

The epistemic insight digest: Issue 2: Summer 2021

Crook, Matthew, Wall, Jasmine, Chignall, David, Parker, Gayle, Wilkinson, Murray and Billingsley, Berry Shalet, Dani (ed.) 2021. The epistemic insight digest: Issue 2: Summer 2021. Canterbury Canterbury Christ Church University.

Scientism, creationism or category error? A cross‐age survey of secondary school students’ perceptions of the relationships between science and religion

Billingsley, B., Taber, K. and Nassaji, M. 2020. Scientism, creationism or category error? A cross‐age survey of secondary school students’ perceptions of the relationships between science and religion. The Curriculum Journal. 32 (2), pp. 334-358. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.83

Primary school students’ perspectives on questions that bridge science and religion: Findings from a survey study in England

Billingsley, B., Abedin, M. and Nassaji, Mehdi 2019. Primary school students’ perspectives on questions that bridge science and religion: Findings from a survey study in England. British Educational Research Journal. 46 (1), pp. 177-204. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3574

Perceptions of the relationships between science and religion held by upper-secondary school students in Church of England schools

Billingsley, B. and Nassaji, Mehdi 2020. Perceptions of the relationships between science and religion held by upper-secondary school students in Church of England schools. International Journal of Christianity & Education. 24 (2), pp. 153-178. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056997119895542

Epistemic insight: a systematic problem and an ecosystemic solution.

Nassaji, M. and Gordon, A.J. 2020. Epistemic insight: a systematic problem and an ecosystemic solution.

A guidebook to building an epistemically insightful learning experience in primary schools

Lawson, F., Simpson, S. and Billingsley, B. 2020. A guidebook to building an epistemically insightful learning experience in primary schools. Canterbury Christ Church University. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5211208

A guidebook to building permeable classroom walls in secondary schools

Lawson, F. and Billingsley, B. 2020. A guidebook to building permeable classroom walls in secondary schools. Canterbury Christ Church University. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5220714

The epistemic insight digest: Issue 1: Autumn 2020

Billingsley, Berry, Stone, Paula, Goddard, Kim, Peters, Christopher, Wilkinson, Victoria, Wilkinson, Murray, Stockham, Claire, Spaull, Stewart, Smith, Lauren, Robinson, Benjamin and Hosseinzadehrahvar, Shirin Stone, Paula (ed.) 2020. The epistemic insight digest: Issue 1: Autumn 2020. Canterbury Canterbury Christ Church University.

Shattering the subject silos: learning about big questions and epistemic insights

Billingsley, B. and Hazeldine, L. 2020. Shattering the subject silos: learning about big questions and epistemic insights. Impact: Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching. Summer (Issue 9).

Developing a cross-curricular session about evolution for initial teacher education: findings from a small-scale study with pre-service primary school teacher

Billingsley, B., Abedin, M., Chappell, K. and Hatcher, C. 2019. Developing a cross-curricular session about evolution for initial teacher education: findings from a small-scale study with pre-service primary school teacher. in: Harms, U. and Reiss, M. (ed.) Evolution Education Re-considered: Understanding What Works Switzerland Springer. pp. 41-57