SCIENCE TEACHERS PHILOSOPHICAL ASSUMPTIONS - HOW WELL DO WE UNDERSTAND THEM

The need for a re-examination of science teachers' philosophical assum ptions, as argued in this paper, is based on an overview of the body o f the relevant literature. This overview suggests a lack of explicit s pecification of the philosophical position which has been taken into a ccount in the development of most of the instruments employed in elici ting science teachers' views about philosophy of science. It is furthe r argued that this tendency appears to stem from the fact that most of the studies fail to recognize the existence of conflicting philosophi cal models of science. An analysis of the issues involved is proposed.