The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher 19:1 (2010), pp. 161-177 Exploring High School Students’ Views Regarding the Nature of Scientific Theory: A Study in Taiwan Meichun Lydia WEN National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan Pi-Chu KUO National Pingtung University of Education, Taiwan Chin-Chung TSAI National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Chun-Yen CHANG National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan changcy@ntnu.edu.tw The purpose of this study was to explore high school students’ views regarding the nature of scientific theory via a context of competing theories for the extinction of dinosaurs. It is believed that views regarding the nature of scientific theory are closely related to personal epistemologies toward science. A questionnaire with four open-ended questions was designed to investigate students’ views about some aspects of the nature of scientific theory. The results of analyzing written responses from 621 Taiwanese high school students indicated that more than 60% of the students understood that scientific theories were subject to change when new observations or interpretations were found. In responding to the reason for having two theories explaining the extinction of dinosaurs, many students were able to recognize the insufficiency of evidence for both theories, indicating that the students understood that science was empirical-based. This study also found that almost all the students held the concept that “science is theory- laden.” We believed that during the processes of responding to the questions designed for this study, students underwent reflective-thinking processes through the controversial context provided by the study, thus expressing the idea that “science is theory-laden.” Gender and subject preference were also included in this study. The results suggest that both factors play significant roles in the particular theory the students supported. Keywords: nature of science, high school, scientific theory, competing theories, extinction of dinosaurs The nature of science (NOS) has attracted great (e.g., Clough, 1995, 2000; McComasClough & attention because of its value in achieving the Almazroa, 1998; Songer & Linn, 1991) has shown perennial goal of science education, which is to that a better understanding of the nature of science develop scientifically literate students. Research would not only help to enhance interest in science © 2010 De La Salle University, Philippines