“As close as it gets to the truth”: University students’ views on science and scientific models of chemical bonding

Distrust of science is a societal concern that could be linked to a limited understanding about the nature of science. Scientific models have an essential role as both tools for doing science and for describing and communicating science. This work investigates first-, second- and third-year Norwegian science students’ (N = 757) thoughts about what it means that a model is scientific, and their rating of how scientific different models of chemical bonding are. A review of Norwegian secondary school textbooks (N = 14) shows agreement between the models first-year students claim as familiar, and the models included in textbooks, but models known from school are not rated by first-year students as more scientific than unfamiliar models. Abstract models, such as an MO diagram or a potential energy graph, are rated as highly scientific by all students, regardless of level of familiarity with the model. A thematic analysis of students’ written explanations of what it means that a model is scientific was conducted and resulted in two main themes. The theme “the Truth” describes how students have a high degree of trust in science and what they perceive as scientific models. For the other main theme, “Research”, students more often describe scientific models as a product of science than as a tool for doing science and scientific research. In science education, focusing on scientific models’ role in the process of science could increase students’ understanding of scientific models and the nature of science.