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Asia-Pacific
Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 7, Issue 2, Article 10
(Dec., 2006) Behiye AKCAY The analysis of how to improve student understanding of the nature of science: A role of teacher
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Research indicate that teacher conceptions of NOS does affect instructional strategies that they use
Science
teachers need to recognize importance of NOS and how it relates to
science teaching if they are to help students completely understand the
content and underlying philosophy of science (Palmquist & Finley,
1997). This is important because science teachers should decide how to
teach the scientific information and how that information became known and
related to a particular view of the NOS.
Lederman
(1992) analyzed the interactions between teachers’ understandings of NOS,
their classroom practices, their actual curriculum structure, and how they
all impact student understanding. Similar analyses were examined by
Larson (2000) with chemistry classroom teachers. He tried to determine:
“do teachers’ conceptions of NOS influence their classroom behaviors
and the classroom environment? Do teacher conceptions of NOS directly
influence the perspective of their students regarding the NOS? What
influences do other contextual factors have upon students’ perspectives
of NOS?” (p.14). After interviews with the students, Larson found that
75 to 81 % of the students had identical opinions with their teachers
about the nature of scientific knowledge. She reported that teachers’
perspectives concerning the NOS influence both their classroom practices
and the classroom environment. She reported direct and positive influences
of teacher conceptions upon the students’ conceptions of NOS.
Brickhouse (1990) examined the possible link between teachers’ views of the growth of scientific knowledge and the methods they use to help students construct knowledge of science. As a result of her study, classroom practices of two out of three teachers were associated with their personal views and philosophies; whereas a third teacher’s classroom practices were not affected at all with their beliefs. She explained that teachers’ views about science have an effect on both explicit lessons about NOS and on the stated curriculum concerning NOS. In other words, the teachers’ understandings of what science is and how students learn science are formed from use of specific instructional strategies.
Gallagher (1991) qualitatively analyzed experienced secondary teachers’ classroom practices. The results indicate that the teachers’ conceptions about the NOS affect their classroom practices. Similarly, Buss et al. (2002) found that the instructional practices of experienced teachers expressed views of the NOS that are related to their personal conceptions.
Recently
many teacher education programs have focused on helping pre-service
teachers to understand NOS. This assumption is that teacher conceptions
about the NOS directly translate into their teaching practices (Ochanji,
2003).
Palmquist and Finley (1997) found that the pre-service teachers’ views of science mostly matched their teaching methods. The views concerning theory, scientists, and science that were observed in their teaching were fairly contemporary. This supports what Brickhouse (1990) found in her case study that teachers’ views of NOS affect what they do in the classroom.
If academic or research interests in teaching for conceptual change are going to have an impact on science teaching, it is clear that the ideas must first be accepted and adopted by those people already established in the profession, such as science teachers, science supervisors, science educators, and administrators (Jones & Beeth, 1995).
Copyright (C) 2006 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 7, Issue 2, Article 10 (Dec., 2006). All Rights Reserved.