scholarly journals The Nature of Science Education for Enhancing Scientific Literacy

2007 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 1347-1362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Holbrook ◽  
Miia Rannikmae
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Scientific Literacy

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 Primary Student Teachers’ Understanding of Basic Ideas of Nature of Science: Laws, Theories and Models

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constantina Stefanidou ◽  
Constantine Skordoulis
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Primary Student ◽  
Basic Ideas

Nature of Science is an integral part of scientific literacy which researchers and international policy-making institutions highlight as the purpose of science education. The notions of scientific law, theories and models are crucial for understanding the Nature of Science. These notions are better grasped in the historical context of Nature of Science.  For this purpose, appropriate instructional sequences, based on semi-structured interviews, were designed and implemented to investigate whether and how the student teachers of Primary Education can perceive these concepts. The study revealed that after particular difficulties were confronted, student teachers were able to grasp firmly the notions of scientific law, theories, models and the relationships among them.

scholarly journals COMPARATIVE RESEARCH ON THE UNDERSTANDINGS OF NATURE OF SCIENCE AND SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY BETWEEN SCIENCE TEACHERS FROM SHANGHAI AND CHICAGO

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-108
Author(s):  
Jingying Wang ◽  
Ying Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Science Inquiry ◽  
School Science ◽  
High School Science ◽  
K 12

Nature of science is considered to be an important component of scientific literacy, and understanding the nature of science is advocated as an important goal of science education. Scientific inquiry is regarded as the core of curriculum reform, which has become the consensus of the international K-12 science education, as well as a scientific direction for which educators have been striving over the last century. To compare the views of nature of science and scientific inquiry of teachers between China and United States, 90 high school science teachers from Shanghai and Chicago are chosen to do open-ended questionnaires and interviews. By conducting the sequential mixed method and using the empirical investigations of VNOS-D and VOSI-S, their different understandings mainly perform in the specific aspects of nature of science and scientific inquiry, cognitive stages, types and relationships etc. Overall, the level of American teachers’ views of nature of science and science inquiry are better than Chinese. Finally, some suggestions on Chinese science teachers’ education are proposed. Key words: epistemological belief in science, nature of science, scientific inquiry.

scholarly journals TESTE DE ALFABETIZAÇÃO CIENTÍFICA BÁSICA: PROCESSO DE REDUÇÃO E VALIDAÇÃO DO INSTRUMENTO NA LÍNGUA PORTUGUESA

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 575-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Alves Vizzotto ◽  
Luiz Fernando Mackedanz
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Large Time ◽  
School Context ◽  
Statistical Techniques ◽  
International Literature ◽  
Federal Institute ◽  
Scientific Phenomena ◽  
The City

Resumo: Este estudo teve por objetivo apresentar o processo de redução instrumental do Teste de Alfabetização Científica Básica (TACB), de Laugksch e Spargo (1996). Este instrumento, de referência na literatura nacional e internacional, é constituído por 110 questões que versam sobre conceitos e fenômenos científicos, natureza da ciência e impactos da ciência e tecnologia sobre a sociedade e ambiente. O seu tamanho pode inviabilizar a aplicação dentro do contexto escolar, pois é necessário grande tempo para respondê-lo e, por isso, corre-se o risco de comprometer o compromisso dos participantes para com as respostas assinaladas. Uma possibilidade de solução é reduzi-lo para um número menor de itens, por meio de técnicas estatísticas, sem que sua validade, confiabilidade e poder de medida sejam prejudicados. Para isso, uma aplicação do TACB foi realizada no primeiro semestre de 2018 em 141 indivíduos, egressos do Ensino Médio, ingressantes de um Instituto Federal da cidade de Pelotas/RS. Como resultados, obteve-se uma redução para 45 itens, mantendo semelhantes os índices de validação do instrumento original. Espera-se que este instrumento possa contribuir com docentes e pesquisadores da área, auxiliando-os na apresentação de diagnósticos sobre a Alfabetização Científica no contexto brasileiro.Palavras-chave: Letramento Científico. Educação em Ciências. Confiabilidade. Abstract: This study aimed to present the process of reducing instrumental Test of Basic Scientific Literacy (TBSL) of Laugksch and Spargo (1996). This instrument, with reference in national and international literature, consists in 110 questions relating concepts and scientific phenomena, the nature of science and impacts of science and technology on society and on the environment. The questionnaire size can derail the application on school context, because it requires large time to answer it, and also there is a risk of compromising the participant’s commitment about the marked answers. A possible solution is to reduce it to a smaller number of items, by using statistical techniques, so that the validity, reliability and power of measurement wouldn’t be harmed. Then, an application of the TBSL was held in the first half of 2018 in 141 individuals, graduates from high school, entering a Federal Institute of the city of Pelotas/RS. As a result, it got a reduction to 45 items, keeping similar validation indexes of the original instrument. It is expected that this instrument can contribute with teachers and researchers, assisting them to present diagnostics about the Scientific Literacy in Brazilian context.Keywords: Scientific Literacy. Science Education. Reliability.

Reviewing Science Education in Trinidad and Tobago through the Lens of the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-171
Author(s):  
Joanne Nazir
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Trinidad And Tobago ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teaching Science ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Island States

This paper explores how the COVID-19 pandemic can act as a lens for educators and scholars to more clearly define some of the issues hampering effective science education in one Caribbean territory. The pandemic clearly revealed certain phenomena in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) including: the poor state of public scientific literacy; limited public understanding of the nature of science; an antagonistic dynamic with respect to public trust in science; and the lack of comprehensive remote/online pedagogical options for science. These issues have implications for the teaching and learning of science in T&T. In particular, science educators are encouraged to consider: a border crossing approach to teaching science; explicitly teaching the nature of science; adopting a science in context approach to science education; and working on developing digital pedagogies for teaching science that honour inquiry and concrete hands-on experience with phenomena. While the article is primarily about Trinidad and Tobago, it may be relevant to those interested in the development of small island states, including other Caribbean territories.

scholarly journals The Effect of Documentary Films on Preservice Science Teachers’ Views of Nature of Science

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 97-107
Author(s):  
Hakan Şevki Ayvacı ◽  
Dilek Özbek
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Science Education ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Documentary Films ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
Preservice Science Teachers ◽  
Post Test ◽  
History Of

Understanding the nature of science, one of the most important dimensions of scientific literacy, is regarded as an absolute necessity in science education. To teach students the nature of science, science teachers should emphasize the nature of science in the classrooms. This is possible through the training of science teachers with knowledge of the nature of science. In this study, documentary films were used to teach preservice science teachers about the nature of science. This study aims to investigate the effect of nature of science course conducted with documentary films on preservice science teachers’ views of nature of science. The study, in which the experimental design was used, was conducted with 30 preservice teachers in nature of science and history of science courses. Throughout the courses, documentary films were watched, and nature of science aspects of the documentary films was discussed. The Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire (VNOS-C) was used as pre-test and post-test, and the data were analyzed with SPSS. As a conclusion, preservice science teachers’ views regarding the nature of science were enhanced after the implementation.

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

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