Students' views concerning worldview presuppositions underpinning science: is the world really ordered, uniform, and comprehensible?

That nature and the universe are ordered, uniform, and comprehensible is a starting point in science. However, such worldview presuppositions are often taken for granted, rather than explicitly mentioned, in science and in science class. This article takes a worldview perspective and reports from interviews (N = 26) with upper secondary students on how they view order, uniformity, and comprehensibility. In the article, it is shown that while most students view the universe as ordered and comprehensible, it is common for students to disagree that the universe is uniform. That is, they view scientific laws as only locally valid. In addition, many of them do not know that science builds upon such worldview presuppositions. In some cases, the results show differences between students’ own views and the views they associate with science. For example, it is common for students to state that science views the universe as more comprehensible than they themselves do. The consequences for students’ interests as well as their learning of science are discussed.