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Pre-service Science Teachers’ Epistemic Beliefs, Nature of Science Views, and Beliefs in Pseudoscience

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Abstract

This study aims to examine the relationship between pre-service teachers’ understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS), epistemic beliefs (EB), and pseudoscientific beliefs (PSB), and whether there is a difference between pre-service teachers’ understanding of NOS and pseudoscientific beliefs with sophisticated and naive epistemological beliefs. The sample consisted of 159 pre-service science teachers. The empirical study is based on correlational design. Nature of Science, Epistemic Beliefs, and Pseudoscience Beliefs Scales were used to collect the data. The results revealed that the pre-service teachers having sophisticated epistemic beliefs have also more sophisticated views of nature of science. According to the findings, no significant correlation was found between pre-service teachers’ pseudoscientific beliefs, epistemic beliefs, and nature of science views.

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Data Availability

The data of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the pre-service science teachers who voluntarily participated in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli University, Nevşehir, Turkey

    Oktay Kızkapan

  2. Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey

    Oğuzhan Nacaroğlu

  3. Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey

    Aslı Saylan Kırmızıgül

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  1. Oktay Kızkapan
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Kızkapan, O., Nacaroğlu, O. & Kırmızıgül, A.S. Pre-service Science Teachers’ Epistemic Beliefs, Nature of Science Views, and Beliefs in Pseudoscience. Sci & Educ (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-023-00450-7

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