Teaching of the NOS in Physics and Chemistry Education: Odds and Evens

Year 2019, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 65 - 85, 30.06.2019

Ahmet Tumbul Mustafa Durgun Zekai Ayık

https://doi.org/10.22596/2019.0401.65.85

Abstract

In
science education many researches and studies have demonstrated importance of nature
of science (NOS) and they claimed that teaching of NOS is the ultimate goal of
science education. Given importance has been emphasized to reflect on all
components of science education from school environment to curriculum content.
Besides, many researches embraces a view that beliefs of science teachers about
NOS and epistemology of science have a direct effect on their instructional
practices. Although numerous global and local (Turkey) attempts aim to teach a
satisfactory level of understanding about  NOS and pave epistemological beliefs in line
with the modern philosophical approaches for both students and teachers, most
of the researches, authentic or novel, have demonstrated unsatisfactory
results. This study has two main goals. First aim is to reveal sophomore
pre-service science teachers’ epistemological beliefs and views about the NOS .
Secondly, evaluate the results in the lights of previous constructivist efforts
that aims to transmit NOS views in line with consensus view. To reveal the
views about the NOS, VOSTS test was used. 45 sophomore pre-service science
teachers responded the test and the results were quantitatively analyzed. The
results showed that eight of ten items were mostly responded in a positivist
approach. Because the results of the questionnaire demonstrated that most of
the participants have positivist views, it was questioned that why still the
level of understanding of the NOS is not satisfactory. Additionally, results
showed that participants, who had been educated by constructivist science
curricula that has mainly supported consensus view of NOS teaching, showed weak
level of understanding NOS. In a similar vein, possible reasons were proposed
and discussed in the light of previous studies for inadequate level of
understanding of the NOS. Results imply that teaching of the NOS seems far from
being contextualized with daily life and science as a human enterprise.

Keywords

Epistemological views, nature of science, science education

Fizik ve Kimya Eğitiminde Bilimin Doğasının Öğretimi: Eleştirel Bir Bakış

Abstract

Fen
eğitiminde birçok çalışma bilimin doğasının (NOS) önemini göstermiştir ve
bilimin doğasının öğretiminin fen eğitiminin nihai amacı olduğunu iddia
etmişlerdir. Fen eğitiminin okul ortamından müfredat içeriğine kadar tüm
bileşenlerini yansıtmaya önem verildiği vurgulanmıştır. Ayrıca, birçok
araştırma, fen bilgisi öğretmenlerinin bilimin doğasının ve epistemolojisi
hakkındaki inançlarının öğretim uygulamaları üzerinde doğrudan bir etkiye sahip
olduğu görüşünü benimsemektedir. Her ne kadar çok sayıda küresel ve yerel
(Türkiye) girişim bilimin doğası hakkında tatmin edici düzeyde bir anlayış
öğretmeyi ve epistemolojik inançları, hem öğrenciler hem de öğretmenler için,
modern felsefi yaklaşımlarla paralel olarak ortaya koymayı amaçlasa da,
araştırmaların çoğu, eski veya yeni, tatmin edici olmayan sonuçlar
göstermiştir. Bu çalışmanın iki ana amacı vardır. İlk amaç, ikinci sınıf fen
bilgisi öğretmen adaylarının epistemolojik inançlarını ve NOS hakkındaki
görüşlerini ortaya koymaktır. İkinci olarak, bilimin doğası hakkındaki görüşlerini
“consensus view” e göre iletmeyi amaçlayan fizik ve kimya derslerinde önceki
yapılandırmacı çabaların ışığında sonuçları değerlendirmektir. Bilimin
doğasının hakkındaki görüşlerini ortaya koymak için VOSTS testi kullanıldı. 45
ikinci sınıf öğretmen adayının katıldığı anketin sonuçlar nicel olarak analiz
edildi. Sonuçlar, on maddeden sekizinin çoğunlukla pozitivist bir yaklaşımla
yanıtlandığını göstermiştir. Anketin sonuçları, katılımcıların çoğunun
pozitivist görüşlere sahip olduğunu gösterdiğinden, bilimin doğasının anlama düzeyinin neden hala tatmin edici olmadığı
masaya yatırlımıştır. Ek olarak, sonuçlar, bilimin doğasının öğretiminin esas olarak “consensus view” i destekleyen
yapılandırmacı fen müfredatı tarafından eğitilen katılımcıların, bilimin doğasını anlamada zayıf bir düzeyde olduğunu göstermiştir.
Benzer bir şekilde, bilimin
doğasının
yetersiz düzeyde anlaşılması için önceki çalışmalar ışığında olası nedenler
önerilmiş ve tartışılmıştır. Sonuçlar, bilimin doğasının öğretiminin günlük yaşam ve bilim ile insan ürünü olarak
bağlamlaştırılmasından çok uzak olduğunu göstermektedir.

Keywords

Epistemolojik görüşler, bilimin doğası, fen eğitimi

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