Teachers’ Views about Nature of Science (NOS) Using Reconceptualised Family Resemblance Approach to Nature of Science (RFN) Questionnaire

Abstract

This study aimed to identify teachers view about Nature of Science (NOS). One of the most recent framework that focused on educational adaptation of NOS is called Reconceptualised Family Resemblance Approach to Nature of Science (RFN). Based on RFN, NOS is categorized by its aims and values, scientific inquiry, methods, knowledge and social-institutional aspect of science. Teacher plays big role in learning process to teach NOS both in implicitly or explicitly. However, only few of research that have been revealed teacher’s view about NOS using RFN. A qualitative research method was considered in order to identify teacher’s responses based on categories of RFN. This study also used 70 items “RFN-Questionnaire” that was adapted from Kaya et al (2019). Total 15 science teachers and 10 non-science teachers such as social and language teachers was participated in written questionnaire and interview processes. The result show that non-science teachers have different view about NOS in each category compared to science-teacher based on interview. Though a quantitative data analyse, using Mann-Whitney based on score from RFN-Q, suggest that there is no significant differences between non-science teacher and science teacher’s overall score. This study concluded that teachers in both science and non-science majors have different view about NOS because of learning experience and processes they have received.

Toward Understanding Science as a Whole

“…However, teachers scored higher on items tapping into the scientific aims and values (M = 3.38). This result ties in well with findings of Azninda and Sunarti's (2021) study where the scientific methods were the least scored category in the RFN. Having somehow a limited background in NOS in this sense should not be a surprise given that, as noted above, the participants in this study are not majoring in science and therefore may not have a sophisticated and deep understanding of the epistemological and procedural nature of NOS.…”

“…Even though the dimensions of the RFN and the elements subsumed within are characteristically defined (Erduran et al, 2018), the malleability of the framework allows newly developed or discovered aspects to fit into it. The RFN framework is being increasingly advocated by emerging literature on NOS because it presents NOS as the totality of the science learning journey while drawing on most prominent international research, theories, and practices, along with data gathered from a number of empirical studies in different contexts (e.g., Akgun & Kaya, 2020;Azninda & Sunarti, 2021;Bou-Jaoude et al, 2017;Kaya et al, 2019).…”

“…The results found that all the domains of RFN including the social-institutional dimensions became visibly more understood as a consequence of taking the course, whereas the domain of scientific practices did not score a change that was significantly different. Also, the differences between preservice teachers' views of NOS according to university majors were explored in Azninda and Sunarti's (2021) study by using RFN questionnaires and interviews with participants from science education, language education and social education majors (n = 25). Results showed that the major of the preservice teachers was not linked to the difference in views.…”

“…Taken collectively, the aforementioned reviewed studies are minimal and somehow similar in their scope due to the fact that the reconceptualized framework is relatively new. While a few studies adopted qualitative methods solely (Saribas et al, 2019), the majority of studies triangulated them with the RFN questionnaire (Akgun & Kaya, 2020;Azninda & Sunarti, 2021;Kaya et al, 2019). Findings generated from these studies shed light on the significance of the teacher education and preparation programs in preparing highly-qualified science teachers who are capable of reinforcing learners' understanding of the variety of concepts that NOS entails.…”

Are We on the Way to Successfully Educating Future Citizens?—A Spotlight on Critical Thinking Skills and Beliefs about the Nature of Science among Pre-Service Biology Teachers in Germany

“…In the introductory section of this article, we referred to the findings of the study by Lederman et al [ 20 ] indicating that seventh graders in several countries have a very poor understanding of SI. However, comparable findings also exist for the public (e.g., [ 72 , 76 , 77 ]), for college students (e.g., [ 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 ]), and even for (pre-service) science teachers (e.g., [ 82 , 83 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 ]).…”