Investigating kindergarteners' views of nature of science

Rapid development in science and technology made scientific literacy a necessity. Parallel to this necessity all education programs defined one of their basic aims as bringing up science literate individuals. Scientific literacy develops and deepens through lifelong and attitudes and values towards science in early years form the development of individuals' scientific literacy. Adequate understanding of nature of science (NOS) is one of the basic components of scientific literacy. Considering the role of early childhood education in forming individuals' and society's future, providing NOS education in early childhood education will be the first steps for science literate society. In this concept, the aim of this study is to investigate kindergarteners' understandings of NOS during an explicit-reflective nature of science instruction.This study is a basic qualitative study. The participants of this study were determined by criterion sampling which is a purposeful sampling method. Participants were eight kindergarteners attending a public primary school's kindergarten in a city located in the middle west of Turkey. In order to identify kindergartners understandings of NOS children interviewed individually using Young Children's Views of Science (YCVOS) before and after the instruction. The data derived from pre- and post-interviews analyzed with an interpretive approach and participants' meanings attributed to NOS aspects were focused on. The results indicated that generally before the instruction kindergarteners held inadequate understanding of NOS and kindergarteners developed their NOS understandings at the end of the instruction. In this respect it can be said that young children understandings of NOS can be developed.