When Nature of Science Meets Quantum Physics: Insights from NOS Representation in Chinese Physics Textbooks

While nature of science (NOS) has been argued as a fundamental element in science curriculum and instruction, empirical studies have continuously reported poor representation of NOS in science textbooks, especially in physics textbooks across the globe. Quantum physics (QP) is proposed to intertwine intensively with NOS and thus potentially carry sufficient NOS. Thus, this study examined the representation of NOS in the texts concerning QP, taking six series of Chinese physics textbooks commonly used at the secondary level as the target. Specifically, we analysed the inclusion of the desired NOS aspects and their co-occurrence within specific content topics using Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA). Furthermore, we examined the distribution of NOS aspects across different QP content topics. Unlike most existing studies, sufficient representation of NOS is observed with a stable distribution regardless of textbook series, which can be explained by the abundance of history of science. Furthermore, the Nature of Scientific Theories, one of the NOS aspects, shares the most co-occurrences with other NOS aspects. Meanwhile, the Social and Cultural Embeddedness of Science is detected with quite insufficient representation. It is suggested that QP is a unique resource for NOS representation in science textbooks. Scientific Theories share the potential to relate and represent more adequate NOS aspects within particular content topics in physics textbooks. Implications for refining the QP in physics textbooks are provided from the NOS representation perspective.