Abstract:

The concept of nature of science, which deals with the structure of science and scientific research methods, has a very important place in science education. However, teachers, teacher candidates, and students have various scientific myths. In this study, elementary teacher candidates’ views of nature of science was examined. This non-experimental quantitative study was designed by using a survey method with participation of 119 (63 female and 56 male) elementary teacher candidates. Student Understanding of Science and Scientific Inquiry (SUSSI) was used to determine elementary teacher candidates’ views of nature of science. The survey consists of 24 items with six factor. For data analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics were performed. Results show that the teacher candidates had mostly transitional/mixed or less informed views related to the objectivity of scientists, variation in their observations, scientific laws as proven theories, social and cultural effects on science, and creativity and imagination. On the other hand, they had scientifically sufficient knowledge regarding that there is not a single scientific way in the formation of scientific knowledge and that experiments are not the only way to produce scientific knowledge. In addition, no significant gender difference was observed in terms of teacher candidates’ opinions related to nature of science.

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