Thai and Bangladeshi in-service science teachers' conceptions of nature of science: A comparative study

NOS understanding is widely accepted as one important attribute for science students. Therefore, at present, NOS is included in many curricula worldwide. However, this study reveals that cultivating NOS education in the existing science classrooms is not an easy task at all. The requirement for cultivating NOS education is to explicitly include NOS in the national science curriculum. However, including NOS in the science curriculum is not enough to ensure the effective teaching and learning of NOS. Science teachers need well-designed NOS professional development programs teaching how to integrate NOS into their classrooms, including the related curriculum materials.

This study also presents some common uninformed conceptions of NOS being held across contexts that science educators can employ as a basis for designing NOS professional development programs. Clearly, teachers cannot effectively teach what they do not know. Helping science teachers attain adequate understanding of NOS is an essential task for science educators. To do that, at first, information about science teachers' prior conceptions of NOS is needed. MOSQ can be utilized to accomplish this task.

Subsequently, there are many activities that can be used to help improve science teachers' NOS conceptions. Based on empirical evidence, explicit-reflective instruction on NOS has the potential to improve science teachers' conceptions of NOS (Akindehin, 1988; Billeh & Hassan, 1975; Carey & Strauss, 1968; King, 1991; Ogunniyi, 1982). There are myriad activities related to teaching explicit-reflective NOS such as writing assignments defining characteristics for science and pseudo-science (Craven et al., 2002); explicit discussion of NOS and role of NOS in science teaching within conceptual change and cooperative learning environment (Palmquist & Finley, 1997); small-group peer discussions and debates (Craven et al., 2002); and growing awareness of, and commitment to, constructivism (Pomeroy, 1993). However, it must be remembered, explicitly teaching NOS outside a science context has only a limited effect on changing and improving science teachers' understanding of NOS. Therefore, NOS-associated activities and discussions should not be an add-on, but should be tightly linked to science content (Driver et al., 1996).