Improving science teachers' conceptions of nature of science: a critical review of the literature

This paper aimed to review, and assess the 'effectiveness' of the attempts undertaken to improve prospective and practising science teachers' concepti ons of nature of science (NOS). The reviewed attempts could be categorized into two general approches: implicit and explicit. Implicit attempts utiliz ed science process-skills instruction or engagement in science-based inquir y activities to improve science leachers' conceptions of NOS. To achieve th e same goal, explicit attempts used instruction geared towards various aspe cts of NOS and/or instruction that utilized elements from history and philo sophy of science. To the extent that teachers' NOS conceptions were faithfu lly assessed by the instruments used in the reviewed studies, the explicit approach was relatively more effective in enhancing teachers' views. The re lative ineffectiveness of the implicit approach could be attributed to two inherent assumptions. The first is that developing an understanding of NOS is an 'affective', as compared to a 'cognitive', learning outcome. The seco nd ensuing assumption is that learners would necessarily develop understand ings of NOS as a by-product of engaging in science-realated activities. How ever, despite the relative 'effectiveness' of the explicit approach, much i s still required in terms of fostering among science teachers 'desired' und erstandings of NOS. The paper emphasizes that explicitness and reflectivnes s should be given prominence in any future attempts aimed at improving teac hers' concepts of NOS.