This study examined and supported the efforts of Tina, an experienced elementary teacher, in helping her fourth graders internalize informed views of the inferential, tentative, and creative nature of science (NOS). Tina held informed views of, and was motivated to teach about, NOS. The study aimed to answer the following question: What specific…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the nature of a first-year elementary teacher's specialized practices and knowledge for giving priority to evidence in science teaching and to explore the possible sources from which this knowledge was generated. Data included three audiotaped interviews, six videotaped classroom…

This case study focused on a preservice teachers' (Morgan) efforts to explicitly emphasize nature of science (NOS) elements in her first-grade internship classroom. The study assessed the change in first grade students' views of the inferential, tentative, and creative NOS as a result of the explicit instruction. Morgan held appropriate views of…

This article describes an exploratory case study of secondary school physics teachers' conceptions of scientific evidence. The nature of teachers' conceptions of evidence was derived from an analysis of data collected from 1 preservice and 2 in-service teachers. Each teacher responded to a series of research prompts in multiple interviews and…

Science teaching orientations, defined as teachers' knowledge and beliefs about the purposes and goals for teaching science, have been identified as a critical component within the proposed pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) model for science teaching. Because of the scarcity of empirical studies in this area, this case study examined the nature…