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This study investigated the development of Bhutanese students' views of the nature of science (NOS) as they engaged in an explicit and reflective approach. Seven aspects of NOS were integrated into the chemistry content in two learning units titled "matter and its composition" and "study of gas laws" over a time span of 6 weeks in a 9th Grade class. This study employed mixed method approaches which included the use of a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and a review of students' journals, and assignments. Data were analyzed for established patterns and themes. Students' views of the NOS in pre-instruction and post-instruction were categorized as naïve, transitional, or informed. The results indicated that at the end of the intervention, students' views of the NOS had improved. It was seen that NOS-specific pedagogical knowledge and subject knowledge played an important role in the teacher's ability to enhance students' views of the NOS.

This study is aimed at exploring ninth-grade Bhutanese students' views of nature of science (NOS). A total of 389 students from middle secondary and higher secondary schools from the eastern, western, southern and central regions of Bhutan took part in this study. To generate a representative population, a stratified random sampling technique was used. An adopted and adapted version of the Students Understanding of Science and Scientific Inquiry (SUSSI) comprised Likert-type items, and open-ended questions were used as a research tool. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and the qualitative data were analysed and categorized into naïve, transitional and informed views. The results indicated that the majority of the Bhutanese students held naïve views on sociocultural embeddedness, scientific laws, scientific theories and science as a body of knowledge. The study has an implication for curriculum developers and teaching professionals, particularly in culturally rich countries, that explicit instruction of NOS should be reframed based on students' cultural backgrounds and their indigenous knowledge.