Chapter 14: Investigating Turkish Preservice Science Teachers’ Views of The Nature of Science

This study examined Turkish preservice science teachers’ views of the nature of science. The participants included 166 fourth-year students enrolled in the department of elementary education at three different universities. Data were collected utilizing Turkish version of Views on ScienceTechnology-Society (VOSTS). Results of the study indicated that while preservice science teachers expressed some views that are consistent with contemporary (realistic) views of the nature of science, they held many traditional (naive) views. The present study attributed the existence of traditional views to science curricular materials and instructional approaches that do not adequately reflect the nature of scientific knowledge.