Teachers’ Ideas About the Nature of Science: A Critical Analysis of Research Approaches and Their Contribution to Pedagogical Practice (original) (raw)
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Science Education, 2010
There is evidence that science teachers give naive responses to direct questions about the nature of science. However, there is also evidence that such responses underpredict the more sophisticated knowledge that teachers may use in classroom situations. The purpose of this study was to characterize the informal ideas used by teachers in situations directly relevant to their teaching of science. The sample comprised 50 Mexican primary school teachers. Three areas of informal expertise were addressed: scientists and their work; scientific inquiry; and data measurement. The teachers' thinking was explored through questionnaires and semistructured interviews using pedagogically relevant contexts. The database was analyzed first to describe ideas shared by teachers and second to identify any recurrent themes and patterns among responses. Teachers' responses were characterized around four areas of discourse: demarcation of science; scientific procedures; approaches to reliable knowledge; and professional and institutional features of science. The teachers' responses were diverse in their contextualization, that is, they incorporated specific background and contextual details to a different extent. Most responses showed limited or intermediate contextualization across all four areas of discourse, though some more sophisticated responses were noted. A general framework was developed to characterize this diversity in teachers' responses. This paper concludes with a discussion of the extent to which this sample of teachers was equipped to discuss the nature of science in pedagogical contexts and, given their starting points, how they might be supported in developing their expertise in doing this. Implications for teacher education
Exploring a Grade 11 Teacher's Conceptions of the Nature of Science
Teachers' conceptions of the Nature of Science (NOS) are central to their instructional decisions and classroom practices. This study aimed at exploring beliefs and understanding of the NOS from a grade 11 Physical Science teacher in relation to her classroom practice. It focused on a single teacher, Ms Seperepere (pseudonym) working in a rural school in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. Data on her conceptions of the NOS were gathered using open-ended questionnaire and lesson observations. The analysis of data indicated that Ms Seperepere held fairly mixed views of the NOS that were also reflected in her classroom practice. The study recommends the NOS to be taught explicitly to student teachers and in-service teachers so as to enable them acquire informed views of NOS. With informed views of the NOS, teachers will be able to design and implement their lessons to promote knowledge and skills in scientific inquiry, understanding of the NOS and the application of the scientific knowledge; as stipulated in the South African Physical Science curriculum.
A science teacher’s complex beliefs about nature of scientific inquiry
Nordic Studies in Science Education, 2018
One major concern relating to teaching scientific inquiry is that many teachers show epistemologically naive beliefs about nature of science (NOS). In this study, we use in-depth interviews to identify an upper secondary science teacher’s beliefs about NOS and scientific inquiry in school. We found that what seemed to be a teacher’s positivist position was embedded in broader concerns regarding pedagogical considerations and personal engagement relating to the students. This broader ecology of a teacher’s beliefs enabled us to understand why positivist epistemology and related myths concerning NOS are seemingly robust in school versions of scientific inquiry. We suggest that implications for science teacher education and professional development are that teacher (students) need opportunities for guided reflections on personal experiences and commitments towards scientific inquiry to increase conscience with respect to how they might affect their situated practice.
TEACHERS' UNDERSTANDING OF THE NATURE OF SCIENCE
This review paper on teachers " understanding of the nature of science focuses on the historical perspectives of science that underpin current theories on the nature of science in an educational context.It examines what research has been done in this field and what it has shown, and looks at the future of the nature of science in science curricula while examining possible ways forward for research in this field.
Science teachers' conceptions of the nature of science: Do they really influence teaching behavior?
Science Education, 1987
This study explored Bangladeshi science teachers' conceptions of nature of science (NOS) with a particular focus on the nature of (a) scientific knowledge, (b) scientific inquiry and (c) scientific enterprise. The tentative, inferential, subjective and creative NOS, in addition to the myths of the scientific method and experimentation, the nature of scientific laws and theories, the social and cultural embeddedness, and cooperation and collaboration in science were considered in the conceptual framework. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected concurrently using the Myths of Science Questionnaire (MOSQ) from 145 science teachers. Results showed that the majority of the teachers in this study held uninformed conceptions about most of the target NOS aspects. Also, an inconsistent response pattern was revealed in teachers' response to the aspects directly related NOS. The results suggest that further research is required to better understand how Bangladeshi teachers model NOS in their classes and how the pedagogies of teacher education inform this modelling.
Improving science teachers' conceptions of nature of science: a critical review of the literature
International Journal of Science Education, 2000
This paper aimed to review, and assess the 'effectiveness' of the attempts undertaken to improve prospective and practising science teachers' conceptions of nature of science (NOS). The reviewed attempts could be categorized into two general approches: implicit and explicit. Implicit attempts utilized science process-skills instruction or engagement in science-based inquiry activities to improve science teachers' conceptions of NOS. To achieve the same goal, explicit attempts used instruction geared towards various aspects of NOS and/or instruction that utilized elements from history and philosophy of science. To the extent that teachers' NOS conceptions were faithfully assessed by the instruments used in the reviewed studies, the explicit approach was relatively more effective in enhancing teachers' views. The relative ineffectiveness of the implicit approach could be attributed to two inherent assumptions. The first is that developing an understanding of NOS is an 'affective', as compared to a 'cognitive', learning outcome. The second ensuing assumption is that learners would necessarily develop understandings of NOS as a by-product of engaging in science-realated activities. However, despite the relative 'effectiveness' of the explicit approach, much is still required in terms of fostering among science teachers 'desired' understandings of NOS. The paper emphasizes that explicitness and reflectivness should be given prominence in any future attempts aimed at improving
Examining the Views About the Nature of Science Among Elementary Pre-service Teachers
International Review of Contemporary Learning Research
Despite the curricula differences in science teaching, science educators tend to agree that the adequate understanding of the nature of science or an understanding of science as a way of knowing is a desired outcome of the science instruction. Many approaches has been introduced and contextualised in different situations. Some researchers argue that teacher preparation programs in the Arab countries do not expose the preservice teacher education students with epistemology and sociology of science, but merely focus on the scientific content knowledge. A study was conducted in the United Arab Emirates to find out the views about the Nature of Science (NOS) among Emeriti preservice teacher education students using the Views on Nature of Science Form C (VNOS-C). The paper reports the findings and suggests some possible areas of future research in this context.
Prospective primary teachers’ views on the nature of science
Journal of Technology and Science Education, 2021
This article presents the results of a piece of research that analyzed the views on the nature of science (NOS) among student teachers enrolled in programs of Primary Education at two public universities in Spain. Previous studies have reported that science teachers maintain ‘eclectic’ epistemological perspectives on science; in this article, we test if such a hypothesis holds when teachers’ NOS ideas are ‘anchored’ in specific periods and topics of the philosophy of science. We studied 114 prospective teachers attending an undergraduate teaching course with emphasis on the natural sciences at the Universities of Burgos and Valladolid in the period of 2017-18. A Likert-scale questionnaire with 50 items was applied to determine trends in those teachers’ epistemological views on science. The results showed that teachers’ views are mostly correlated with the philosophical period of Logical Positivism/Received View, and to some extent to the period of Recent and Contemporary Accounts. R...