Exploration of Preservice Science Teachers’ Nature of Science Understandings
Abstract
Present study aims to explore Preservice Science Teachers (PST) Nature of Science (NOS) views. Qualitative research methodology guided the present study. The phenomenological approach was used to identify PSTs’ NOS understandings. Fifteen (1 male, 14 female) junior students studying in public university participated to the study. The NOS views were tested through the administration of VNOS-B survey developed by Abd-El Khalick et al., (1998). PSTs’ views were categorized as naïve, transitional, and informed. Results showed that most of the PSTs have informed views for the empirical, subjective, tentative, creative, inferential, and social cultural aspects of NOS. There was one exception: for the theory-laden aspects, most of the PSTs hold naïve views. It can be concluded that the majority of the PSTs who participated in this study hold informed views about NOS.
Keywords
Nature of science,Preservice science teachers,Scientific literacy
References
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).(1993). Benchmarks for science literacy: Project 2061. New York: Oxord University Press, Inc.
- Abd-El-Khalick, F. (2003). Socioscientific issues in pre-college science classrooms: The primacy of learners' epistemological orientations and views of nature of science. In D. L. Zeidler (Ed.), The role of moral reasoning in socioscientific issues and discourse in science education (pp. 41-61). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.
- Abd-El-Khalick, F. (2006). Over and over and over again: college students' views of nature of science. In L. B. Flick & N. G. Lederman (Eds.). Scientific Inquiry and Nature of Science (pp. 389-425). Netherlands: Springer.
- Abd-El-Khalick, F., Bell, R.L., & Lederman, N.G. (1998). The nature of science and instructional practice: Making the unnatural natural. Science Education, 82, 417-436.
- Abd-El-Khalick, F., & Lederman, N. G. (2000). Improving science teachers' conceptions of nature of science: A critical review of the literature. International Journal of Science Education, 22(7), 665-701.
- Abd‐El‐Khalick, F., Myers, J. Y., Summers, R., Brunner, J., Waight, N., Wahbeh, N., ... & Belarmino, J. (2017). A longitudinal analysis of the extent and manner of representations of nature of science in US high school biology and physics textbooks. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 54(1), 82-120.
- Akerson, V. L., & Volrich, M. L. (2006). Teaching nature of science explicitly in a first‐grade internship setting. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 43(4), 377-394.
- Akerson, V. L., Pongsanon, K., Rogers, M. A. P., Carter, I., & Galindo, E. (2017). Exploring the use of lesson study to develop elementary preservice teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge for teaching nature of science. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 15(2), 293-312.
- Akerson, V. L., Pongsanon, K., Weiland, I. S., & Nargund-Joshi, V. (2014). Developing a professional identity as an elementary teacher of nature of science: A self-study of becoming an elementary teacher. International Journal of Science Education, 36(12), 2055-2082.
- Bartholomew, H., Osborne, J., & Ratcliffe, M. (2004). Teaching students “ideas‐about‐science”: Five dimensions of effective practice. Science Education, 88(5), 655-682.