Matthew Price published a research article in the June 2009 issue (number 8) of SPARK: The AAS Education Newsletter, entitled, "Connecting Nature of Science Learning and Content Learning."
In the project for his Ph.D., Matthew Price studied the effects of inquiry-based instruction on astronomy students' understanding of the nature of science and astronomy content. He found evidence to indicate that student understanding of the nature of science is correlated to their ability to understand astronomy content.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20090814092747853