Understanding progressive nature of science based on history and philosophy of science perspective: Thomson, Rutherford and Bohr atom theories

Many researchers demonstrated the importance of history and philosophy of science (HPS) for understanding the nature of science (NOS) and its progress. The aim of this study is to facilitate pre-service science teachers' understanding of the NOS of through using a content prepared in the perspective of HPS. Several studies demonstrated that physics and chemistry textbooks have serious epistemological problems compared to current philosophy of teaching of science. This situation causes a lack of understanding the NOS and scientific progress. In a Lakatosian framework a big number of textbooks physics and chemistry used widely analyzed by Mansoor Niaz and his colleagues and almost all of them found lacking depicting of the NOS and scientific progress but Leon Cooper's textbook. Cooper's book was evaluated as adequate due to its content presentation in the perspective of HPS. In this study, 34 pre-service science teachers, who has already taken general chemistry course in which one of the analyzed low graded textbook was used, are participants. Half of participants were chosen randomly as control group and remaining was participated as experimental group. The study includes a pre-test, and instruction phase and a post-test same as pre-test. In this quasi experimental study, both tests were given to both group, but only experimental group participated to the intervention or instruction phase. The tests were combinations of a modified version of VNOS and criteria developed by Mansoor Niaz in a Lakatosian theoretical framework of history and philosophy of science and scientific progress. The tests were used to reveal participants's views on the NOS and scientific progres. Chapter of atomic theories was held in instruction phase in the perspective of HPS according to criteria developed by a previous study. In the end the effect of an instruction prepared in the perspective of HPS on the understanding of the NOS and scientific progress is evaluated and it was seen that a content prepared in the perspective of HPS in a Lakatosian theoretical framework had a positive effect on understanding and conceptions of pre-service science teachers about the NOS and scientific progress.