Views of the elementary teachers and preservice elementary teachers about the nature of science

The goal of this study is to reveal the views of the teachers and pre service teachers about the nature of science. The study group of the research has consisted of 116 teachers and 105 pre service teachers (56 second grade, 40 fourth grade). The questionnaire of ?Views About the Nature of Science? which consisted of nine categories and 114 multiple choice questions was developed by Aikenhead, Ryan and Fleming (1989) in an experimental way and 25-item VOSTS-TR questionnaire which was translated and adapted to Turkish by Doğan was used with the aim of determining the views of the participants. Structural interviews were made with 10 teachers and 8 pre service teachers with the aim of detailing the data obtained by the questionnaire.After analyzing the data obtained by the research it was observed that the participants had realistic views about; the effect of society on science, the effect of the science on society, the nature of the observations, nature of the classification scheme, impermanence and changeability of knowledge on the other hand they had insufficient views about; the relation of the sex about scientific inventions, the nature of the scientific models, the relation between hypothesis- theory law and epistemological status of the scientific knowledge. The interviews made with the participants supported these results.The fact that there was a difference in two questions relating the consistency of hierarchy and interdisciplinary concepts between hypothesis, theory, law on the other hand there was no significant difference in other questions were determined.There were significant differences about the questions in categories relating the effect of society on science between the views and academic levels of pre service teachers about nature of science, characteristics of scientist, the social structure of scientific knowledge and the nature of scientific knowledge.The significant relation was found relating the questions about teachers? professional experience between nature of science, the effect of science on society, the fact that scientist might break the rules of science and theory.