Improving Preservice Elementary Teachers' Views of the Nature of Science Using Explicit-Reflective Teaching in a Science, Technology and Society Course

Abstract

This study examined twelve preservice elementary teachers’ views on the nature of science (NOS). The student teachers participated in a cohort group as they took a science, technology and society course during which the target NOS aspects were taught through an explicit/reflective approach. The main goals were to that (1) improve preservice teachers’ understanding of NOS and (2) encourage them to teach NOS in their classrooms. Data were collected through Views of the Nature of Scienceform C (VNOS-C) survey and followed semi-structured interviews. Both survey and interviews were administered at the beginning and end of the intervention. It was concluded that preservice teachers hold an inadequate understanding of NOS. However after teaching the NOS in an explicit-reflective way, the majority of them improved their understandings of all the NOS aspects except for relationship and distinction between theories and laws. The main result of the study is that for student teachers to really teach NOS to their students, first of all, they need to have intentions about teaching it. This was achieved in the current study by encouraging and supporting student teachers to develop and implement their own NOS activities in real educational contexts to elementary students.