Abstract:

Although there are different views about what scientific literacy involves there is a strong agreement among science educators on the importance of understanding the nature of science and technology for scientific literacy. Science teachers have an important role in improving students’ understanding of the nature of science and technology. That is the case because teachers’ views, conceptions and philosophies influence classroom practices more than what is planned in school curriculum. Therefore we started a research project and developed a professional development package for prospective and practicing teachers. This three year project is supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK, project number: 108K086). We implemented and refined the professional development package for two years with prospective chemistry teachers. The professional development package included explicit-reflective learning activities focusing on different aspects of nature of science and technology. In the present study our purpose was to examine the effects of an explicit-reflective and open-ended technological design activity on prospective chemistry teachers’ understandings about the nature of science and technology, particularly (a) the characteristics of science and technology, (b) the goals, methods and products of science and technology, and (c) the relationship between science and technology.

Participants of the study were 30 prospective chemistry teachers and they were in the last year of their five-year teacher education program. In the open-ended technological design activity, participants were asked to design an effective way of transportation to high mountains. They were given many different materials and tools such as papers, plastic bags, wires, adhesives, nippers etc. and their only constrain was to use available resources. They worked in small groups; planned transportation vehicles or systems; constructed, tested and refined the models of their designs. At the end of the activity, participants explicitly discussed nature of science and technology through reflecting their experiences in this activity.

We collected mainly qualitative data including semi-structured interviews with participants, video records of activity and reflection papers about the nature of science and technology. Obtained qualitative data were analyzed using the grounded theory data analysis tradition. Data analysis revealed important development and changes in participants’ understandings of nature of science and technology. Before the activity all of the participants manifested that science and technology are different endeavours but they couldn’t clarify the difference between science and technology. After the activity they could differentiate science and technology and explain the distinctness of science and technology in terms of their aims, methods and products. Additionally, they tended to view technology as application of science and thought that science always precedes technology before the activity. After the activity they viewed the relationship between science and technology as a two way interaction and beware of that science is not the only source of technological development. Furthermore, some of the participants comprehended that technology doesn’t mean only computers; it means any product or system that help us to meet our needs.

Keywords:

Teacher Education, Nature of Science and Technology, Scientific Literacy.