scholarly journals Exploring How Research Experiences For Teachers Changes Their Understandings Of The Nature Of Science And Scientific Inquiry

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanlyn R. Buxner
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Informal Science Education ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Research Experiences ◽  
Research Experiences For Teachers

<p>The nature of science is a prevalent theme across United States national science education standards and frameworks as well as other documents that guide formal and informal science education reform. To support teachers in engaging their students in authentic scientific practices and reformed teaching strategies, research experiences for teachers offered in national laboratories, university research centers, and national field-sites promise opportunities to help teachers update their current understanding of STEM fields and experience firsthand how scientific research is conducted with the end goal of supporting more inquiry-based teaching approaches in their classrooms. This qualitative interpretive study used an adapted Views of Nature of Science and Views on Scientific Inquiry surveys and protocols to investigate changes in 43 practicing teachers understandings about the nature of science and scientific inquiry as a result of participation in one of three summer science research programs. Each program provided participants with research experiences alongside professional researchers as well as activities intended to increase participants abilities to provide inquiry-based science learning activities for their students. Data were collected using open-ended surveys pre-program, post-program and long-term follow-up surveys, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, along with researchers observations and field-notes. Participation in these programs led to small, measurable enhancements in teachers understandings of scientific inquiry and the nature of science. Teachers prior experience with research was found to have the strongest relationship to their knowledge of the nature of science and scientific inquiry. The data in this study provides evidence that research experiences can provide valuable experiences to support teachers improved knowledge of how science is conducted.</p>

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 Views of Trainee Science Teachers in Kuwait Regarding the NoS Dimensions and Their Conception of Creativity in Science Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Ahmad Shallal Alshammari ◽  
Hamed Jassim Alsahou ◽  
Joza M Alshemmari
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Education Research ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Science Education Research ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Trainee Teachers ◽  
Science Educators

Science educators are often advised to pay attention to trainee teachers’ views on issues related to education, particularly the nature of science (NoS). Views on the NoS can be translated into pedagogical practices and then transferred to students; therefore, teachers should hold informed views about the NoS. This study sought to explore the views of trainee science teachers in Kuwait about the NoS and its aspects or dimensions. It also aimed to identify the possible connections among the NoS dimensions and teachers’ views on creativity in science. This multi-method study involved 152 trainee science teachers. The research instruments consisted of a questionnaire about teachers’ views of the nature of science (VNoS), a questionnaire about teachers’ views of creativity in science education, and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that trainee science teachers hold naïve and sometimes perplexing views of the NoS dimensions, and they are more likely to follow a traditional positivist worldview when they discuss the nature of scientific knowledge. Also, the findings revealed trainee teachers’ views of creativity in science education as well as significant correlations among six NoS dimensions and creativity. Detailed findings are discussed to draw conclusions and address possible suggestions for science educators and for the community of science education research.

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 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 DEFINING TEACHER OWNERSHIP: A SCIENCE EDUCATION CASE STUDY TO DETERMINE CATEGORIES OF TEACHER OWNERSHIP

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 659-674
Author(s):  
Ana Valdmann ◽  
Jack Holbrook ◽  
Miia Rannikmäe
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Science Teacher ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Sense Of Ownership

This study seeks to put forward a justified definition for the concept of Teacher Ownership, and establishes levels of science teacher ownership, based on a hierarchy of categories, using phenomenographic analysis. Such ownership is based on a meaningful science teacher internalisation of a motivational context-based teacher approach, established via a prior CPD programme. In so doing, the study distinguishes between teachers’ self-efficacy levels attained at the end of the CPD and teacher ownership indicating the capability of propagating the desired teaching to students and other teachers. The phenomenographic analysis, based on semi-structured interviews, is carried out with 10 science teachers, 3 academic years after the administered CPD programme. From an analysis of perceptions, 3 distinct categories of sustainable science teacher ownership, based on 5 distinct teaching dimensions, reflect variations in orientation of teacher ownership. The main conclusions are that sustainable teacher ownership differs from terms such as a sense of ownership, towards ownership and self–efficacy and that, in this study, teacher ownership can be described as being exhibited by the science teachers in paradigmatic, experiential and emotional ownership categories. Keywords: phenomenographic analysis, self-efficacy, teacher ownership, teacher ownership categories.

scholarly journals An Explicit and Integrated NOS Flow Map in Instruction of Nature of Science based on the History of Science.

2018 ◽  
pp. 646-655
Author(s):  
Jun-Young Oh
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Special Theory ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Flow Map

The aims of this research are, (ⅰ) to consider Kuhn’s concept of how scientific revolution takes place based on individual elements or tenets of Nature of Science (NOS), and (ⅱ) to explore the inter-relationships within the individual elements or tenets of nature of science (NOS), based on the dimensions of scientific knowledge in science learning, this study suggests that instruction according to our Explicit Integrated NOS Map should include the tenets of NOS. The aspects of NOS that have been emphasized in recent science education reform documents disagree with the received views of common science. Additionally, it is valuable to introduce students at the primary level to some of the ideas developed by Kuhn. Key aspects of NOS are, in fact, good applications to the history of science through Kuhn’s philosophy. And it shows that these perspectives of the history of science are well applied to Einstein’s special theory of relativity. Therefore, an Explicit Integrated NOS Flow Map could be a promising means of understanding the NOS tenets and an explicit and reflective tool for science teachers to enhance scientific teaching and learning.

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