Science education policies and standards have called for educators to teach students about the Nature of Science (NOS) and engage them in Culturally Relevant Science Teaching (CRST), which requires critical shifts away from traditional science teaching. As such, teachers are being asked to possess or take up conceptions of science that challenge…

We report on the development of a rubric to reliably qualify and score responses to the "Views of Nature of Science Questionnaire" (VNOS): The "VNOS Analysis and Scoring Rubric" (VAScoR). The "VAScoR" is designed to (a) provide systematic guidance for the qualitative analysis, and score assignment to nuanced…

Teaching about nature of science (NOS) is considered as an important goal of science education in various countries. Extensive empirical research about how some aspects of NOS can be effectively taught is also available. The most widely adopted conceptualization of NOS is based on a small number of general aspects of NOS, which fall into two…

This study (i) explicates the sorts of ideas about science and the nature of knowing that were generated among participant graduate students who viewed the sci-fi film, "Contact," and (ii) examines the interactions between these ideas and ontic stances with which participants approached viewing the film. Eleven doctoral students of…

Research on nature of science (NOS) and scientific inquiry (SI) has indicated that a teacher's knowledge of each, however well developed, is not sufficient to ensure that these conceptions necessarily manifest themselves in classroom practice (Lederman & Druger, 1985; Lederman, 2007). In light of considerable research that has examined…

This study developed learning progression-based measures of science teachers' content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The measures focus on an important topic in secondary science curriculum using scientific reasoning (i.e., tracing matter, tracing energy, and connecting scales) to explain plants gaining weight and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible responses to anomalous data obtained from experiments that are repeatable by carrying out additional or alternative experiments in the laboratory. Based on an analysis of responses from scientists to anomalous data taken from identification experiments on the Vinland Map, it was assumed…

Recent arguments in science education have proposed that school science should pay more attention to teaching the nature of science and its social practices. However, unlike the content of science, for which there is well-established consensus, there would appear to be much less unanimity within the academic community about which…

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of three science teachers attempting to transform their practice by conducting action research on feminist science teaching. The teachers engaged in systematic, self-critical inquiry of their own practice and joined 8 other science teachers to engage in collaborative conversations about the…

This study aimed to assess grade 10 Turkish students' and science teachers' conceptions of nature of science (NOS) and whether these conceptions were related to selected variables. These variables included participants' gender, geographical region, and the socioeconomic status (SES) of their city and region; teacher disciplinary background, years…

Examines the discursive and social practices of a teacher educator and eight beginning science teachers in a course on the nature of science and issues of equity and diversity. Focuses on beginning teachers' views of science and science teaching as well as the grounds they offered for their views. (Contains 104 references.) (Author/YDS)

This study examined the views, and the retention of these views, of 19 preservice elementary teachers as they learned about nature of science (NOS). The preservice teachers participated in a cohort group as they took a science methods course during which they received explicit reflective instruction in nature of science. Through Views of Nature of…

Investigates the responses of a sample of preservice biology teachers enrolled in a teaching methods course to a casual question about why water rose in a jar inverted over a burning candle placed in a pan of water by formulating and testing six hypotheses. (Contains 43 references.) (Author/YDS)

Delineates factors which facilitate or impede the relationship between classroom practices and teachers' understanding of the nature of science. Finds that teachers' conceptions of science do not necessarily influence classroom practice, though teachers' level of experience, intentions and perceptions of students were critically influential on…

Despite the ubiquity of the term "inquiry" in science education literature, little is known about how teachers conceptualize inquiry, how these conceptions are formed and reinforced, how they relate to work done by scientists, and if these ideas about inquiry are translated into classroom practice. This is a multicase study in which 14 preservice…