Due to the substantial emphasis on engineering in K-12 science education efforts in the USA, it is important for teachers to develop a deeper understanding of the nature of engineering (NOE) and the relationship between engineering and science. A deep understanding is characterized not only by the presence or absence of ideas but also by the…

The demarcation problem as one of the most prominent topics in the philosophy of science deserves a higher profile in science education literature as a part of the discussions about the instruction of the nature of science (NOS) concepts to generate a scientifically literate society. In this qualitative survey research study, the views of the…

While much is known about teacher learning of nature of science (NOS) concepts, less is known about how teachers develop an understanding of how to effectively teach NOS or how instructional views might differ across levels of the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) wheel. Therefore, this study investigated the NOS instructional views related to…

The purpose of this study was twofold: first, to investigate science teachers' views about the nature of science (NOS); and second, to examine science teachers' views about their NOS integration into instruction. Reconceptualized family resemblance approach to nature of science (RFN) is used as a theoretical and analytical framework. The…

The objective of this work was the theoretical modeling of a construct based on teaching practice about the perception that pupils have of difficulties in problem solving (PS) in experimental sciences, specifically physics, to predict pupil performance in PS. The research was carried out with an incidental sample of second year of secondary…

This study used the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model to analyze pre-service teachers' views on the nature of science (NOS). This approach can be used to automate the classification of documents, and at the same time, the researcher does not need to deduce with a NOS framework prior to evaluation. Participants were 155 pre-service…

During a 10-week professional physical science professional development (PD) course, elementary inservice teachers (n = 18) in a large urban district were engaged in explicit-reflective nature of science (NOS) instruction. Teachers were also explicitly engaged in reflection concerning NOS pedagogy (e.g., explicit-reflective, role of context).…

Many science educators have argued in favour of including socioscientific issues (SSI) in general, and ethical issues in particular, in school science. However, there have been a number of objections to this proposal, and it is widely acknowledged that such teaching places additional demands on science teachers. This study examined the curricula,…

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the role of informed decision-making in times of crisis and the need for equipping teachers with the ability to address socioscientific issues in the classroom. In this study, we examine the features of socioscientific reasoning found in preservice elementary teachers' group discussions on the issue of…

The obstacles and difficulties that science teachers face when teaching the nature of science (NOS) are well-known. Nonetheless, little is known of what science teacher educators (STEs) know, do, and think about this issue. Thus, a study with 142 Spanish STEs was conducted. This was aimed at analysing (i) what preparation the STEs have to teach…

The paper reports a study that seeks to develop an instrument so as to explore Bangladeshi science teachers' perceived importance and perceived current practices, geared to the inclusion of four suggested areas of focus within a context-based, socio-scientific framework--student motivation, scientific problem-solving, socio-scientific…

The paper reports about a study that examines changes in teachers' incorporation of epistemic practices in their design of engineering lessons and compares them to their views about the nature of engineering knowledge across 100 hours of professional development. Nineteen K-8 teachers in the USA, who were new to teaching engineering as part of a…

Climate change science is complex and perceived to be controversial in nature by some stakeholders. Yet from the perspective of educators and policy makers, climate change science is an important topic to be taught in secondary science education. The presence of controversy can influence teachers' instructional decisions and cause confusion about…

Despite the importance of evolution to understand living phenomena, evolution teaching confronts several tensions, especially with respect to teachers' and students' religious beliefs. These aspects have been widely investigated in the USA and Europe. However, little empirical research has been done on this issue in Latin America, despite their…

The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to delve into professional development (PD) of science teachers' views about nature of science (NOS) throughout activities linking NOS aspects to science centers (SCs), and second, to reveal how a science teacher uses NOS aspects while teaching in SCs. An instrumental qualitative case study method with…