Preservice Teachers’ Nature of Science Views

Abstract

Nature of Science (NOS) is neglected despite the many developments in the teaching. This is becoming especially important in the light of recent developments in pedagogy, as for example, more teachers adopt constructivist methodologies and computing technology which enables similarities that may blur the lines between models and reality. Consequently, identifying effective means for teaching the nature of science (NOS) has become a central focus for science education in the recent years. Accordingly, pre-service science teaching  methods  courses should promote NOS understanding. It is given that if science teachers are to present  effective  NOS instruction, they must have informed understandings of the NOS  themselves  and  pedagogical  content knowledge about effective NOS instruction. In this investigation, Bachelor of Secondary Education major in Physical Science students‟ NOS conceptions was assessed with adapted Views of the Nature of Science (VNOS) Form-C instrument. Responses were analyzed  into coded or thematic categories of „naive‟, „informed‟ and „ambiguous‟. Most participants held inadequate views in some aspects of NOS based on the result of the study. It was found out that significant portion of respondents possessed uninformed views. It was also noted that students from lower year levels had more ambiguous and uninformed views than those in the higher year level. Some implications for teaching and teacher education are also presented in this paper for discussion.