Abstract:

One of the goals of science education is to improve the scientific literacy among the population. This is normally done through the education system of any country. Classroom science teachers are at the fore front of this goal, and hence a lot of research to assess and improve the nature of science (NOS) conception of pre-service and in-service teachers has been done especially in developed countries like United States for the last 64 years (since 1950). However, science teacher training in colleges/ Universities involves faculty members in education departments (mainly teaching method courses to pre-service courses) and those in science departments (teaching mainly content courses to pre-service science teachers). Little research has been done to explore NOS conceptions of the science faculty members moreover these members implicitly or explicitly may influence the way pre-service teachers conceive and teach about and/ with the NOS after they graduate from the teacher training colleges/ universities. Hence the purpose of this study was to explore the Chemistry professors’ conceptions of the NOS in the private research University located in North Eastern part of United States. Four chemistry professors were interviewed and their classes were observed by the researcher. This paper describes how the chemistry professors’ conceive nature of science, and the factors which have influenced their conception of NOS views. The implication for science teacher education is discussed accordingly.

Keywords:

Chemistry Professors, Nature of Science, Science Education.