Investigating the relationship between teachers’ nature of science conceptions and their practice of inquiry science

This study has several implications for inquiry reform efforts. Exposing teachers to both NOS concepts and the tenets of scientific inquiry and inquiry based science teaching may expedite the science education reform efforts in schools. First, it appears that a better understanding of NOS conceptions is also conducive to achieving the objectives of the inquiry-based reform efforts because it enables the teachers to better understand the goals set forth in the reform documents, such as achieving scientific literacy. This study suggests that a better understanding of NOS conceptions enables the teachers to see the big picture of how the NOS conceptions, inquiry learning, and scientific literacy all fit together.

Second, the findings of this study suggest that professional development programs should consider teaching NOS concepts along with a method course that is concentrated on inquiry science and inquiry based science instruction. Adopting such an approach may also expedite inquiry based science education reform in schools. As was the case in this study, it may be more beneficial to teachers if the explicit and reflective NOS instruction is accompanied by an inquiry science method course where teachers engage in inquiry science and reflect on their inquiry experiences and their future plans to integrate inquiry science into their science instruction.

Finally, a better understanding of NOS concepts assists the teachers to develop a higher appreciation of inquiry science instruction. It helps them develop a new perspective of science and science instruction. Adopting explicit and reflective instruction in these programs appears to be the most conducive approach to improving teachers’ NOS conceptions (Khishfe & Abd-El-Khalick, 2002; Schwartz, Lederman, & Crawford, 2004).