Abstract
Many scholars in the teaching of science put forth that the perennial target of science education is to teach the nature of science (NOS), and science textbooks play a crucial role in the teaching of the nature of science (NOS). Understanding the nature of science is said to be effective when both understanding science concepts and doing science. Numerous studies focus on the teaching of NOS. This study investigates the effect of a science content that is prepared in history and philosophy of science (HPS) perspective on the NOSunderstandings of pre-service science teachers. 34 sophomore pre-service science teachers participated in the study. The quasi-experimental method was used by employing a pre-test, an intervention, and a post-test which is the same as the pre-test. The intervention involved the presentation of science content from the HPS perspective in six weeks long of discussions. Data were collected through a survey that revealed categorical views regarding the characteristics of the NOS. The results showed that the demonstration of atom theories in the HPS perspective gave a positive effect on the pre-service science teachers in understanding the NOS.
Highlights
The main goal of science education has been controversial for decades
In a comparison pre-test results of the control group and experimental group, there seem no significant difference between the pre-test results of both groups, the control group was better about % 4 in Lakatosian answers
Teaching nature of science (NOS) is seen as an important goal of science education (Niaz & Coştu, 2009; Niaz, 2016; McDonald & Abd-El-Khalick, 2017), and demonstration of scientific knowledge in textbooks has a crucial role in this goal (McDonald, 2017; Yang et al, 2020)
Summary
The main goal of science education has been controversial for decades. Scientific literacy is accepted as the main goal of science education (Allchin, 2013). McDonald & Abd-El-Khalick (2017) proposed that being scientifically literate requires the ability to (1) “apply and reason scientifically” (2) “master the discourse of science”, and (3) “understand the historical and epistemological significance of the learned concepts”. The third component deals with the understanding the nature of science (hereafter NOS) which is seen as an integral element of scientific literacy, and the main focus. Coştu / JPII 9 (3) (2020) 451-464
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