PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ VIEW OF NATURE OF SCIENCE (NOS)

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate pre-service teachers’ view of nature of science (NOS). A descriptive survey design was used for the study. A convenience sampling technique was used to get the participants. Participants were made up of 231 level 100 pre-service teachers (119 males and 112 females) from five colleges of education in Ghana. All the colleges of education were under the same mentor university. Participants completed the view of nature of science questionnaire (NOSQ) through online learning platforms. Data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that in general pre-service have no adequate conceptions about nature of science. However, pre-service teachers have informed views of some aspects of nature of science. The results revealed that 56 (24.2%) of pre-service teachers have naive view of NOS. The results also revealed that 89 (38.5%) of pre-service teachers have transitional view of NOS. The results also revealed that 86 (37.2%) of pre-service teachers have informed view of NOS. There was no significant difference in pre-service teachers view of NOS between males (M = 3.76, SD = .389) and females (M = 3.79, SD = .376), t (229) = -.707, p = .48. Therefore, we fail to reject the null hypothesis. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed no significant difference in pre-service teachers’ view of NOS by programme options, [F (2,228) = .783, p = .458.] Article visualizations: