Education Commons^™

Examination Of Training On Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Views On Socio-Scientific Issues And Nature Of Science, Aylin Çam

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Science continuously interacts with the social environment. Science develops with social needs, and society develops and changes with scientific advances. These changes and developments may cause dilemmas in society. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the improvements among pre-service science teachers in terms of socio-scientific issues and nature of science after explicit theoretical and practical training. The participants in this case study were 16 voluntary pre-service science teachers. In-depth views of the pre-service science teachers on nature of science and socio-scientific issues were examined with open-ended questions and reflective diaries. After the training, the understanding of the …

Nature Of Science: Examining Science Teachers’ Knowledge And Their Instructional Practices, Sharon Bramwell-Lalor

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This case study focused on a university teacher-education course that included NOS content. An adapted questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data on 83 secondary science teachers’ views about three NOS themes before and after completing the course. Qualitative data were collected from eight of the teachers who were observed teaching during their field experience after completing the course. The teachers’ post-course mean NOS scores were statistically significantly higher than their pre-course scores (t (65) =-10.08, p<.001; Cohen’s d = 1.4). Despite the favourable NOS knowledge among the science teachers, low levels of NOS portrayal were observed in their instructional practices. These findings point to some success in explicitly addressing NOS in science education content courses. However, they raise questions about the transferability of teachers’ NOS knowledge into their classrooms. The findings have implications for teacher-preparation programmes regarding durability of NOS knowledge.

Socioscientific Issues-Based Instruction: The Messier Side Of (Leading) Science Teaching, Savannah Graham, Mark Bloom, Sarah Quebec Fuentes, Jo Beth Jimerson

Journal of Educational Supervision

The present case centers on a socioscientific issues-based lesson taught by a preservice teacher (PST) in an AP Biology class. The PST designed and delivered a lesson on disease transmission and ways to avoid infection with connections to the COVID-19 pandemic mask mandates and vaccine reticence. The Principal received several emails from parents (positive and negative), citing the incorporation of political issues and critical race theory into the science lesson. With this framing, the case depicts how the Principal, PST, university supervisor, and cooperating teacher navigate the situation. The case highlights the role of school leader as instructional leader. In …

Preservice Science Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge For Nature Of Science And Nature Of Scientific Inquiry: A Successful Case Study, Gunkut Mesci

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation project is to explore preservice science teachers’ development of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for targeted aspects of nature of science (NOS) and nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI). Through multiple data sources, it is examined how preservice science teachers’ understanding of NOS and NOSI have changed over the program, and manifests itself in their classroom practice. This is an exploratory multiple case study of participants’ experiences and developments during a teacher development program. Data is collected in the form of open-ended surveys, interviews, observations, lesson plans, video materials, and teaching documents. After all data is collected, …

Professional Development Of Elementary And Science Teachers In A Summer Science Camp: Changing Nature Of Science Conceptions, Ayhan Karaman

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Many countries all over the world have recently integrated nature of science (NOS) concepts into their science education standards. Providing professional support to teachers about NOS concepts is crucially important for successful implementation of the standards. For this purpose, a summer science camp was offered to elementary and science teachers. The main objective of this research study was to investigate the progress in specific NOS concepts made by the participant teachers. The responses of the teachers regarding the NOS concepts were obtained through VNOS-C questionnaire and scored using a rubric developed by McDonald (2008). The scored teacher responses were analyzed …

Readings On Current Biology: Bibliography, Imsa Biology Team

Nature of Science

No abstract provided.

Post-Assessment, Imsa Biology Team

Nature of Science

No abstract provided.

Current Readings In Biology: Guiding Questions, Imsa Biology Team

Nature of Science

No abstract provided.

Essential Questions, Imsa Biology Team

Nature of Science

Questions that must be addressed in order to understand the current state of biological life and how it has changed over time.

Nature Of Science Pre-Questions, Imsa Biology Team

Nature of Science

No abstract provided.

Science & Spaghetti Monsters: Understanding The Nature Of Scientific Knowledge & Research, Sarah O'Leary-Driscoll

Nature of Science

What is science?

When students are asked to define science, many of them define science as “a body of knowledge gained by performing experiments.”

A more appropriate definition, however, is that “Science is … a process of inquiry aimed at building a testable body of knowledge open to rejection or confirmation” (Shermer, 2005).

There are three important points that this definition makes:

Course Syllabus: Fall 2015, Imsa Biology Team

Nature of Science

No abstract provided.

Uganda Science Teacher Educator: A Concurrent Mixed Methods Investigation Of Nature Of Science, Pedagogy And Classroom Learning Environment Perspectives, Robert Elisha Musookho Kagumba

Dissertations

This study investigates the perspectives of Uganda science teacher educators on three areas foundational to science education reforms: Nature of science, preferred science pedagogy and classroom learning environment. Uganda has embraced science education reforms but classroom science teachers struggle to implement them. Could these struggles be attributed to their science teacher educators’ perspectives? Using a concurrent mixed method design, the study profiles the views of 63 science teacher educators in Uganda.

Data were collected using four instruments: Student Understanding of Science and Scientific Inquiry, Pedagogy of Science Teaching Test, Views of Nature of Science survey and Constructivist Classroom Learning Environment …

Using The Instructional Congruence Model To Change A Science Teacher's Practices And English Language Learners' Attitudes And Achievement In Science, Hania Moussa Salame

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of adapting the instructional congruence model on the English Language Learners' (ELL) attitudes and achievement in science. Changes in teacher's views and practices were documented. The mixed-method approach was adapted. Data sources were the "Attitude Towards Science" survey, VNOS-C questionnaire, Luykx and Lee (2007) observational instrument, Gee (1997) discussion categories, video recordings, and pre- and post-tests. A science teacher and a class of 24 ELL female students in a charter school participated in this research. The results of this study indicated that student achievement increased significantly and students' attitudes …

The Influence Of An Advanced Agriculture & Life Science Course On Students' Views Of The Nature Of Science, Megan N. Anderson

Open Access Theses

One of the goals in today's society is to ensure that students exiting school have the ability to understand, develop, and comprehend scientific information. For students to be able to meet these goals, it is imperative that they become scientifically literate and understand the concept of the Nature of Science (NOS). The discipline of Agricultural Education has strong connections with science and today many students are earning science credit and developing science understanding through Agricultural Education courses. If students are continuing to gain science mastery through their Agricultural Education courses, they should also be gaining adequate conceptions of science and …

Factors That Affect The Ability Of Novice Science Teachers To Teach For Nos Understanding, Bennett Alexander Adkinson

Doctoral Dissertations

Novice science teachers face a multitude of instructional, curricular, and institutional constraints that affect their classroom decisions. Emphases from their teacher training programs interact with and compete against the realities of professional teaching. This qualitative comparative case study attempts to look at the interactions of novice science teachers with the reform-based practice of nature of science (NOS) instruction. Teacher training programs teach their pre-service science teachers about NOS and try to emphasize the importance of NOS understanding on student scientific literacy, but little is known about how science teachers view and approach NOS once they are free from the constraints …

Nature Of Science Conceptions, Attitudes Towards Evolution And Global Climate Change, And Course Achievement In An Introductory Biology Course, Benjamin Elijah Carter

Theses - ALL

Many researchers have studied student attitudes toward and knowledge of evolutionary science, attitudes towards global climate change (GCC), conceptions about the nature of science (NOS), and course success. However, at the time of this writing, no studies explicitly link these topics.

It is overwhelmingly acknowledged by the scientific community that evolution and global climate change (GCC) are undeniably supported by physical evidence. And yet, both topics remain very politically contentious in the United States. Efforts to mitigate the disconnects between the scientific community and the general public on these issues are imperative to science education. Such undertakings need to examine …

Evolving Minds: Helping Students With Cognitive Dissonance, Terry L. Bramschreiber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Even 150 years after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, public school teachers still find themselves dealing with student resistance to learning about biological evolution. Some teachers deal with this pressure by undermining, deemphasizing, or even omitting the topic in their science curriculum. Others face the challenge and deliver solid scientific instruction of evolutionary theory despite the conflicts that may arise. The latter were the topic of this study.

I interviewed five teachers that had experience dealing with resistance to learning evolution in their school community. Through these in-depth interviews, I examined strategies these teachers use when …

The Inclusion Of The Nature Of Science And Its Elements In Recent Popular Science Writing For Adults And Young Adults, Feng Jiang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to examine the inclusion of nature of science (NOS) in popular science writing to determine whether it could serve supplementary resource for teaching NOS. Four groups of documents published from 2001 to 2010 were included in the analysis: Scientific American, Discover magazine, winners of the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, and books listed in National Science Teacher Association's (NSTA) Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12.

First, computer analysis was performed to categorize passages in the selected documents based on their inclusions of NOS. Then, follow-up human analysis was conducted to assess the frequency, …

Deaf Education Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions Of Scientific Inquiry And Teaching Science To Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Students, Shannon Carol Graham

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to describe preservice teachers’ perceptions of scientific inquiry and science teaching to deaf and hard of hearing students. Participants were four deaf education preservice teachers enrolled in a graduate level course on content area methods during their professional internship year. The instructor employed implicit and explicit reflective pedagogy for the science methods section and focused on scientific practices. Research questions guiding this study are as follows: 1) What are deaf education preservice teachers’ perceptions of scientific inquiry? and 2) What are deaf education preservice teachers’ perceptions of science teaching and learning among deaf and …

The Influence Of An Activity-Based Explicit Approach On The Turkish Prospective Science Teachers’ Conceptions Of The Nature Of Science, Suat Celik, Samih Bayrakceken

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of an activity-based explicit nature of science (NOS) instruction undertaken in the context of a “Science, Technology and Society” course on the prospective science teachers’ (PSTs’) understandings of NOS. In this course, social science based inquiry activities were used to as a context to lead reflection and explicit discussions and project based learning approach (PBL) was used to model an active student centred NOS teaching and learning. Participants were 36 senior PSTs. An adopted form of VNOS questionnaire along with semi-structured interviews was used to assess participants’ conceptions before and …

Legitimate Peripheral Participation Of Secondary Educators In Scientific Research Experiences: Implications For Teachers' Understanding Of The Nature Of Science And Classroom Teaching, Matthew Phillip Perkins

Doctoral Dissertations

Both of the national reform efforts (AAAS, 1993; NRC, 1996) encouraged teachers to engage in professional development that included authentic scientific research experiences. The Department of Energy developed a program to match teachers with mentor scientists at national laboratories for three consecutive summers. Teachers produced and presented a poster summarizing their research at the conclusion of each summer.

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to better understand how scientific research experiences impacted teachers. Six dimensions were examined: trajectory of participation, content knowledge development, mentor relationships, beliefs about the nature of science, teacher confidence, and classroom practice. These …

Munazza’S Story: Shedding Light On A Science Teacher’S Conceptions Of The Nature Of Science Through A Life History Study, Nelofer Halai, Derek Hodson

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Life history research creates a broader understanding of teaching by providing illustration of the relationships among various aspects of teachers’ lives and their teaching practice, both inside and beyond the classroom. This article focuses on the life history of Munazza, a young science teacher at the Karachi Model Secondary School (KMSS), a private, co‐educational, English‐medium school for children from middle‐income families. Its purpose is to gain insight into a female science teacher's understanding of teaching science in a school in Pakistan, ascertain what aspects of this science teacher's conceptions of the nature of science are explicit in her practice, and …