Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Understanding of Nature of Science and Ability to Integrate Nature of Science into Teaching

Abstract

     Certainly, without knowledge and ability to integrate the nature of science (NOS) into teaching, instructors cannot effectively teach NOS. The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service science teachers’ understanding of NOS and their ability to integrate NOS into teaching. The participants consisted of 17 pre-service science teachers from a teacher preparation institution in Southern Thailand. The study was conducted during their field experience in the second semester, academic year 2011. The researcher measured the pre-service science teachers’ understanding of NOS using the Views of Nature of Science (VNOS C) questionnaire developed by Lederman. The responses were examined and categorized into groups using Ho-Wisniewski’s analytical framework. The researcher measured the ability to integrate NOS into teaching by classroom observation, examining the participants’ lesson plans, interviewing university supervisors and cooperating teachers on the participants’ teaching practice to portray NOS instruction, and by validating the findings. The results indicated that most of the pre-service science teachers held naive views of NOS in all aspects except for the tentative nature of scientific knowledge. On their ability to integrate NOS into teaching, the results indicated that pre-service science teachers had two approaches to teaching NOS; the implicit approach and the deficient approach.