Assessing and comparing the epistemological gap between teachers and students regarding the scientific models and modeling

Scientists use models to describe and predict the real world, students use models to learn science, and teachers use models to teach. Science education curriculums and standards emphasize Model-based teaching. On the other hand, the closeness of teachers' and students' understanding and perspectives on the classroom topics increases education effectiveness. This study examines the performance of teachers and students in modeling, measures their knowledge of scientific models, and compares them. Forty-one physics, chemistry, and biology teachers and 431 tenth and eleventh-grade students were asked to participate in a modeling activity and then answer the standard questionnaire of model understanding. The findings showed that teachers' performance in building and understanding models differs from that of students. However, teachers had similar problems to students in terms of theoretical representation and understanding of models as exact copies of reality, so students and teachers who considered the model as an exact copy of reality had little ability to build models. The result is that due to the gap between teachers' and students' understanding of the nature, purpose, and application of models, different performance is seen in building models and learning through models in them. Changing the curriculum of science teacher education to promote modeling and model-based teaching, along with more attention to scientific modeling in the secondary curriculum, can fill the gap between teachers' and students' understanding of models while improving science learning.