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Science Teachers’ Thinking About the Nature of Science: A New Methodological Approach to Its Assessment

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Abstract

This paper describes Spanish science teachers’ thinking about issues concerning the nature of science (NOS) and the relationships connecting science, technology, and society (STS). The sample consisted of 774 in-service and pre-service teachers. The participants responded to a selection of items from the Questionnaire of Opinions on Science, Technology & Society in a multiple response model. These data were processed to generate the invariant indices that are used as the bases for subsequent quantitative and qualitative analyses. The overall results reflect moderately informed conceptions, and a detailed analysis by items, categories, and positions reveals a range of positive and negative conceptions about the topics of NOS dealt with in the questionnaire items. The implications of the findings for teaching and teacher training on the themes of NOS are discussed.

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Notes

  1. The set of 30 items selected from COCTS in the study is available at: http://www.oei.es/COCTS/esp/index.html.

  2. Available at: http://na-serv.did.gu.se/teknik/teknikpdf/voststasks.pdf.

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Acknowledgments

The present study corresponds to grant SEJ2007-67090/EDUC funded by the national I+D+i 2007 Programme of the Ministry of Education and Science (Spain) and the support of the Ibero-American States Organization (OEI).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Pedagogía Aplicada y Psicología de la Educación, Universidad de las Islas Baleares, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Ángel Vázquez-Alonso

  2. Departamento de Didáctica de las Ciencias, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain

    Antonio García-Carmona

  3. Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de las Islas Baleares, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    María Antonia Manassero-Mas

  4. Departamento de Biología, Universidad de las Islas Baleares, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

    Antoni Bennàssar-Roig

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  1. Ángel Vázquez-Alonso
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Correspondence to Antonio García-Carmona.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Full text of the item F1_40531 (first column) that poses the issue of the impact of technology on the standard of living (label: social well-being). The second and third columns give the question and position labels and the category assigned—Appropriate (A), Plausible (P), or Naïve (N)—to each position.

 

Variable labels

Category

40531. More technology will improve the standard of living for our country.

F1_40531 social well-being

 

A. Yes, because technology has always improved the standard of living, and there is no reason for it to stop now.

F1_C_40531A_N_ social well-being

(N)

B. Yes, because the more we know, the better we can solve our problems and take care of ourselves.

F1__40531B_P_ social well-being

(P)

C. Yes, because technology creates jobs and prosperity. Technology helps life become easier, more efficient, and more fun.

F1__40531C_N_ social well-being

(N)

D. Yes, but only for those who can afford to use it. More technology will cut jobs and cause more people to fall below the poverty line.

F1__40531D_A_ social well-being

(A)

E. Yes and no. More technology would make life easier, healthier and more efficient, BUT more technology would cause more pollution, unemployment, and other problems. The standard of living may improve, but the quality of life may not.

F1_C_40531E_A_ social well-being

(A)

F. No. We are irresponsible with the technology we have now; for example, our production of weapons and using up our natural resources.

F1__40531F_P_ social well-being

(P)

F1: the item belongs to form 1.

_C_: the “C” means that the category assigned to the position achieves consensus (high agreement) among judges.

40531: key item number that represents the issue “social well-being”.

40531A: key sentence number that represents the sentence A of the item 40531.

_A_: category key that represents a position categorized as Appropriate.

_P_: category key that represents a position categorized as Plausible.

_N_: category key that represents a position categorized as Naïve.

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Vázquez-Alonso, Á., García-Carmona, A., Manassero-Mas, M.A. et al. Science Teachers’ Thinking About the Nature of Science: A New Methodological Approach to Its Assessment. Res Sci Educ 43, 781–808 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-012-9291-4

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