Abstract:

Science education researchers recently turned their attentions towards exploring views about the nature of science (NOS). Many studies show that both students and teachers have naïve views about the NOS. Unfortunately there are few studies which explore scientists’ views about the nature of science in literature. This study primarily purposes to explore views of scientists in both natural and social science about the NOS. The second aim of the study is to determine whether there is any difference between the views of scientists in natural science and in social science. The design of this study is based on phenomenological tradition as a qualitative research procedure. Semi-structured interviews were employed for obtaining data. Thirty one scientists were chosen randomly from five departments (chemistry, physics, biology, literature and history departments) of a state university as the participants. The interview questions were structured in such a form that scientists’ views can be examined in terms of six aspects of the nature of science: (1) views of science, (2) a universal scientific method which involves sequential steps exists or not, (3) social and cultural embedding of scientific knowledge, (4) the relationship between scientific theories and laws, (5) imagination and creativity in scientific knowledge, (6) empirically-based scientific knowledge. Data were analyzed through the content analysis methodology. This study revealed that the scientists in the sample have neither completely informed views nor completely naïve views according to contemporary science understanding. Their views were a blend of the two in terms of almost all of the aspects of the nature of science. Many responses demonstrated us that they have more naïve views with respect to universal scientific method, and the relationship between scientific theories and laws. The views of the scientists in natural science and in social science were not substantially different. The scientists from both groups generally had similar viewpoints. This picture got us to think that the scientists’ views about the nature of science may not surely related to their scientific disciplines.

Keywords:

Nature of science, views of scientists, natural science, social science.