The influence of history of science courses on students' views of nature of science

This study (a) assessed the influence of three history of science (HOS) cou rses on college students' and preservice science teachers' conceptions of n ature of science (NOS), (b) examined whether participants who entered the i nvestigated courses with a conceptual framework consistent with contemporar y NOS views achieved more elaborate NOS understandings, and (c) explored th e aspects of the participant HOS courses that rendered them more "effective " in influencing students' views. Participants were 166 undergraduate and g raduate students and 15 preservice secondary science teachers. An open-ende d questionnaire in conjunction with individual interviews, was used to asse ss participants' pre- and postinstruction NOS views. Almost all participant s held inadequate views of several NOS aspects at the outset of the study. Very few and limited changes in participants' views were evident at the con clusion of the courses. Change was evident in the views of relatively more participants, especially preservice science teachers, who entered the HOS c ourses with frameworks that were somewhat consistent with current NOS views . Moreover, explicitly addressing certain NOS aspects rendered the HOS cour ses relatively more effective in enhancing participants' NOS views. The res ults of this study do not lend empirical support to the intuitively appeali ng assumption held by many science educators that coursework in HOS will ne cessarily enhance students' and preservice science teachers' NOS views. How ever, explicitly addressing specific NOS aspects might enhance the effectiv eness of HOS courses in this regard. Moreover, the study suggests that expo sing preservice science teachers to explicit NOS instruction in science met hods courses prior to their enrollment in HOS courses might increase the li kelihood that their NOS views will be changed or enriched as a result of th eir experiences with HOS. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.