EPISTEMOLOGICAL BELIEFS OF STUDENTS AND TEACHERS ABOUT THE NATURE OF SCIENCE - FROM BACONIAN INDUCTIVE ASCENT TO THE IRRELEVANCE OF SCIENTIFIC LAWS

The main objectives of this study are to: (a) to investigate students' and teachers' beliefs about the nature of science; (b) to explore the relationship among the students' and teachers' beliefs; and (c) to ca rry out a rational reconstruction of students' and teachers' beliefs b ased on a Lakatosian perspective of the history and philosophy of scie nce. Eighty-nine freshman students and 7 chemistry teachers at the Ins titute Universitario de Tecnologia, El Tigre (Venezuela) were asked to respond to a 4-item questionnaire. Students' and teachers' responses were classified as positivist, transitional or Lakatosian. Most of the students and teachers responded with a very similar positivist approa ch. Epistemological beliefs of students and teachers in this study can be summarized as follows: a scientific theory has not been proved in its totality, whereas a scientific law has not only been proved, but i s also universal, and furthermore, a theory tells us about more comple x and explicit things. In view of the Lakatosian interpretation that t he conflict is not between theories and laws, but rather between an in terpretative and an explanatory theory, it is concluded that science t eachers reconsider the dichotomous presentation of scientific progress found in most text books, in terms of theories and laws.