Fostering students' scientific literacy is a key goal of science education, with understanding the nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI) as a central component. Achieving this goal requires teachers to possess adequate knowledge in this area. However, assessments indicate that pre-service science teachers (PSTs) have not yet developed comprehensive…

As the adoption rate of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) continues to rise in the United States, there is an increasing need for the development of high-quality instructional materials that reflect NGSS and effectively prepare teachers for its implementation. The NGSS aim to foster an understanding of three interconnected dimensions in…

The purpose of this study is to reveal preservice science teachers' perceptions related to the sun, star, comet and constellation concepts. The research was carried out by 56 preservice science teachers (4th grade) at Kastamonu University taking astronomy course in 2014-2015 academic year. For data collection open-ended questions that required…

The purpose of this study was to explore Pre-service Elementary Science Teachers' (PSTs) conceptual understanding of Particulate Nature of Matter (PNM) through a three-tier diagnostic test. Participants were 215 PSTs from Turkey. Data consisted of participants' responses to the Particulate Nature of Matter Test (PNMT). The PNMT consists of…

Background: Understanding the nature of science (NOS) has been a key objective in teaching sciences for many years. Despite the importance of this goal it is, until this day, a complex challenge that we are far from achieving. Purpose: The study was conducted in order to further the understanding of the NOS amongst preservice teachers. It explores…

A great amount of research has been carried out world-wide to promote history of science as a powerful science teaching tool. Because the ways of choosing and using historical elements depend on teachers' or researchers' educational purpose, any attempt to support a single model-to-use seems difficult and probably irrelevant. However,…

In recent education reform policies of different countries, scientific literacy was set as the national goal for science education. Understanding how science itself and scientists really work, in other words, understanding the nature of science is necessary to reach the desired scientific literacy level. Students also need to understand the…

This study aimed to describe preservice and experienced secondary biology teachers' global and specific subject matter structures (SMSs) and elucidate the relationship between these structures and teaching experience. Teachers' global and specific SMSs respectively designate their conceptions and/or organization of their disciplines and of…