Student teachers' attitudes concerning understanding the nature of science in Turkey

Abstract

Nature of science is defined as one of the directions of scientific literacy. The main aim of this study was to investigate both secondary school social and science branch post-graduate (non-thesis master) teacher candidates attitudes about the Nature of Science (NOS) and compare their attitudes towards NOS. A 12-item Likert type scale for teacher candidates was used, based on responses of 207 participants. The results indicated that teachers had low positive attitudes towards NOS, but found some significant understanding differences against scaled items between social and science teacher candidates. There was no relationship between the attitudes to the NOS, and the scientific disciplines.