How Contextualized Learning Settings Enhance Meaningful Nature of Science Understanding.

OpenAlex İngilizce

Exploring different contexts to facilitate in-depth nature of science (NOS) views were seen as critical for better professional development of pre-service science teachers, which ultimately would assure better students' NOS understanding and achieve an ultimate goal of current science education reforms. This study aimed to reduce the lack of information related to the contribution of contextualized settings to gain a deeper NOS understanding by pre-service science teachers and provided evidence to inform researchers for effective teacher education programs. The present study focused on helping pre-service teachers develop their NOS views within a combination of different contextualized settings, coupled with explicit reflective NOS instruction. The study was undertaken with seven pre-service elementary science teachers. Data was collected by administration of open-ended questionnaire. The findings revealed substantial improvements in pre-service science teachers' NOS understanding. The results showed that contextualized learning settings might provide teachers with meaningful deeper understanding of NOS rather than rote memorization of NOS tenets.