Improving Elementary School Teacher Candidates’ Views of Nature of Science Through Intensive Education

Year 2018, Volume: 4 Issue: 2, 155 - 171, 01.07.2018

Tugba Ecevit Yalcin Yalaki Sevgi Kingir

https://doi.org/10.21891/jeseh.432524

Cited By: 7

Abstract

Elementary school teacher candidates’ (student teachers or STs) views of
nature of science are important for an effective science teaching that aims to
improve children’s scientific literacy. The purpose of this study was to
improve STs’ views of nature of science through an intensive intervention. The
study group consisted of 65 third year STs who were attending a major
university in Ankara Turkey during the 2015 – 2016 fall semester. An
educational program with a variety of activities that were designed to help
improve participants’ views of nature of science was applied and the effect of
this program was evaluated. The educational program included historical
approach activities, generic activities, explicit-reflective approach
activities, and media news analysis activities which were applied in three hour
periods over the course of nine weeks. Both qualitative and quantitative data
were collected in this convergent parallel mixed method study. At the beginning
of the study, the participating STs had naive views of nature of science and
some misconceptions. After the applied educational program, STs’ views of
nature of science improved and they adopted more contemporary views of science.
As a result, a long-term intervention with multiple methods of teaching with
different kinds of activities was found to be an effective approach for
improving STs’ understanding of nature of science.

Keywords

Nature of science, Teaching nature of science, Pre-service elementary teacher, Intensive intervention

References

• Ecevit, T., Yalaki, Y., & Kingir, S. (2018). Improving elementary school teacher candidates’ views of nature of science through intensive education. Journal of Education in Science, Environment and Health (JESEH), 4(2), 155-171.