Relationship Between Pre-Service Teachers’ Views Of Nature Of Science And Their Study Subjects

The aim of this study was to investigate pre-service science and mathematics teachers’ views of the nature of science and to find out any relationships between their views and their study subjects. For this aim the Views on the Nature of Science (VNOS) questionnaire was administered to 220 pre-service science and mathematics teachers from departments of chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics in both Faculty of Education and Faculty of Science. The participants’ responses to VNOS questionnaire were analyzed by employing a coding theme based on seven aspects of the nature of science. Chi-Square test was implemented to analyze data to check the relationship between the pre-service teachers’ views of NOS and their study subjects. It was found that less than 50% of the participants’ views of certain aspects of NOS are considered as “informed,” except subjectivity nature of scientific knowledge and role of creativity and imagination in science. A relationship was found between the participants’ views of NOS and their study subjects for five out of seven aspects of NOS. Implications for science teacher education and for future studies are discussed.