Influence of a reflective explicit activity-based approach on elementary teachers' conceptions of nature of science

This study assessed the influence of a reflective, explicit, activity-based approach to nature of science (NOS) instruction undertaken in the context of an elementary science methods course on preservice teachers' views of so me aspects of NOS. These aspects included the empirical, tentative, subject ive (theory-laden), imaginative and creative, and social and cultural NOS. Two additional aspects were the distinction between observation and inferen ce, and the functions of and relationship between scientific theories and l aws. Participants were 25 undergraduate and 25 graduate preservice elementa ry teachers enrolled in two sections of the investigated course. An open-en ded NOS questionnaire coupled with individual interviews was used to assess participants' NOS views before and at the conclusion of the course. The ma jority of participants held naive views of the target NOS aspects at the be ginning of the study. During the first week of class, participants were eng aged in specially designed activities that were coupled with explicit NOS i nstruction. Throughout the remainder of the course, participants were provi ded with structured opportunities to reflect on their views of the target N OS aspects. Postinstruction assessments indicated that participants made su bstantial gains in their views of some of the target NOS aspects. Less subs tantial gains were evident in the case of the subjective, and social and cu ltural NOS. The results of the present study support the effectiveness of e xplicit, reflective NOS instruction. Such instruction, nonetheless, might b e rendered more effective when integrated within a conceptual change approa ch. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.