The Nature of Science in physics teaching in Italy

In this paper, we describe two studies carried out in the research field of Nature of Science (NOS). The general aim was to explore the role of NOS in the Italian physics teaching context. In both studies, the Reconceptualized Family Resemblance Approach to NOS (RFN) was adopted as the theoretical framework. In the first study, the RFN was used to investigate the presence of NOS at an institutional level, and physics guidelines for the Italian Scientific Lyceum were analysed. Then, an Epistemic Network Analysis allowed us to visualise the connections between the elements of the nature of physics that emerged in various sections of the guidelines. In the second study, one element of NOS, scientific practices, was explored from the perspective of physics teachers. We investigated how physics practices, such as modelling and experimenting, were taught in class by a sample of very motivated teachers.