How the Family Resemblance Approach Improves Students’ Understanding of Science and Pseudoscience

Abstract

The widespread use of seemingly scientific claims commonly known as pseudoscience poses a challenge to students’ ability to critically evaluate information. Science education, particularly through the Nature of Science (NOS), can equip students to understand the unique characteristics of scientific from pseudoscientific claims. The Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) offers a holistic framework for teaching NOS by emphasizing shared characteristics across scientific disciplines while acknowledging disciplinary diversity. This design-based research investigated how an FRA-based intervention influences students’ reasoning about science and pseudoscience in a two-iterative cycle. In the first cycle, 10 Indonesian students were recruited as Cycle 1 participants, and 5 Indonesian students based in the Netherlands were recruited as the Cycle 2 participants. Each cycle involved a pre-test, an FRA-based instructional intervention, and a post-test. Data from worksheets were coded using the five FRA categories, distinguishing between superficial and concrete responses. Findings indicate that several students improved their application of FRA categories in evaluating scientific and pseudoscientific cases, with some demonstrating conceptual gains even when pre-test reasoning showed no evidence of FRA-related thinking. These results support the value of FRA for fostering nuanced understanding without imposing rigid definitions of science. The study recommends refining cross-cultural sampling, expanding data collection methods, and developing teacher-led instructional models to strengthen classroom adoption of FRA for addressing pseudoscience.