The Nature of Science or the Nature of Teachers: Beginning Science Teachers’ Understanding of NOS

2011 ◽  
pp. 189-206
Author(s):  
Jonah B. Firestone ◽  
Sissy S. Wong ◽  
Julie A. Luft ◽  
Derek Fay
Keyword(s):  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Beginning Science Teachers

Beliefs of preschool teacher candidates about the nature of science

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 774-783
Author(s):  
Güzin Özyılmaz ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
Preschool Teacher ◽  
Spring Semester ◽  
Teachers Beliefs ◽  
Aim Of Science ◽  
Academic Year

The aim of science education is to enable children to become “science-literate.” Science literacy is defined as taking responsibility for and making decisions about situations requiring scientific understanding and having sufficient knowledge, skills, attitudes and understanding of values to put their decisions into practice. Revealing teachers’ beliefs can help to understand the types of experiences presented by teachers in their classrooms. Inadequate understandings and misbeliefs of teachers shape the first perceptions of children about the NOS when they are formally introduced with science education in their early childhood. Most of the studies were also performed with science teachers and there have been few studies conducted with preschool teachers. Therefore, the present study was directed towards determining NOS beliefs of preschool teacher candidates. To achieve this aim, Nature of Science Beliefs Scale (NOSBS), developed by Özcan and Turgut (2014), was administered to the preschool teacher candidates studying in Preschool Education Department of Buca Education Faculty at Dokuz Eylül University in the spring semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. In the study, the NOS beliefs of the teacher candidates were found to be acceptable in general. While the findings of this study are consistent with those revealed in several relevant studies in the literature

Exploring Pre-service Science Teachers’ Perspectives on the Nature of Science: A Comparative Study Between China and Canada

2021 ◽  
pp. 209653112096678
Author(s):  
Guihua Zhang ◽  
Yuanrong Li ◽  
George Zhou ◽  
Sonia Wai-Ying Ho
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Science Teacher ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Science Teacher Education ◽  
Teaching Behaviors ◽  
Preservice Science Teachers

Purpose: The Nature of Science (NOS) is an important component of scientific literacy. Science teachers’ Views of the Nature of Science (VNOS) directly affect their teaching behaviors. Therefore, it is of great significance to explore science teachers’ VNOS and find ways of improvement. This study was designed to comparatively investigate preservice science teachers’ VNOS between China and Canada. Design/Approach/Methods: The study employed a survey design to explore how Chinese and Canadian preservice science teachers understood the seven different aspects of NOS. Findings: Data showed that preservice science teachers in China and Canada both hold a modern view about science education. The level of Chinese and Canadian participants’ understanding of NOS was above the relatively naive level. Chinese teachers had better macro-understanding toward science education but their micro-mastery was insufficient. While the Canadian participants had a better understanding of the NOS than their Chinese counterparts. Originality/Value: Based on the research results and the experience of science education and teacher education in Canada, we suggested that there is a need to reconstruct the preservice science teacher education curriculum in China and promote the transformation in the science teacher educational system.

scholarly journals A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY ON FRESHMEN’S KNOWLEDGE OF GENETICS, EVOLUTION, AND THE NATURE OF SCIENCE

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-18
Author(s):  
Andrej Šorgo ◽  
Muhammet Usak ◽  
Milan Kubiatko ◽  
Jana Fančovičova ◽  
Pavol Prokop ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Scientific Reasoning ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
First Year ◽  
Scientific Explanations ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Level Of Knowledge ◽  
First Year University

The purpose of this study was to measure the freshmen’s level of knowledge about genetics, evolution, human evolution, the nature of science, and opinions on evolution and the presence of non-scientific explanations among Czech, Slovakian, Slovenian and Turkish students. Determination of prior knowledge and pre-conceptions about these issues is important because they are filters to learning other related concepts. The results are going to be a starting point for developing teaching strategies concerning Darwinian evolution and preparing prospective science teachers for working with students in national and international contexts. A total of 994 first-year university students from the Czech Republic (276; 27.8%), Slovakia (212, 21.3%), Slovenia (217, 27.3%) and Turkey (235, 23.6%) participated in this study. The findings can be summarized as follows: knowledge especially that of the nature of science at the freshmen level was seriously flawed. Non-scientific explanations were present in high percentages. Both were regarded as barriers towards scientific reasoning and acceptance of general human evolution especially for students expressing orthodox religious beliefs. Key words: evolution, genetics, human evolution, nature of science, non-scientific explanations.

scholarly journals DO LABORATORY ACTIVITIES CONTRIBUTE TO A CONTEMPORARY CONCEPTION OF SCIENCE IN INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING?

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (32) ◽  
pp. 983-995
Author(s):  
K. VALENCIA ◽  
V. SANJOSÉ ◽  
T. TORRES
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Training ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Service Science ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Laboratory Activities ◽  
Science Teacher Training ◽  
Undergraduate Programs

In this study, It was analyzed the implementation of laboratory activities in the pre-service science teacher’s training and how they contribute to the construction of a contemporary epistemic vision of the nature of science. A cross-sectional study was developed in two different undergraduate programs of pre-service science teacher training in a university in Colombia of. We analyzed the way laboratory activities are developed in nine science subjects of physics, chemistry, and biology, apart from the first to the eight semesters of the curriculum (10 semesters in total). Results indicate that the laboratory activities focused on the development of pre-defined techniques and procedures, giving little prominence to creativity, doubt, discussion, planning, and application, even though they are also characteristic activities of scientific work. This kind of laboratory activities does not seem to favor th e construction of a contemporary conception of the nature of science in future science teachers.

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