A Study About The Nature Of Science’s Effect On The Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Informal Reasoning About Global Warming

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to reveal how the pre-service science teachers conceptualize the nature of science in their informal reasoning, regarding the subject of global warming. In line with this purpose, case study was selected among the qualitative study approaches in this research. The study was conducted in two phases. Firstly, 38 sophomore pre-service science teachers, who were receiving education at a state university, were determined and their conceptualizations regarding the nature of science were attained. Following the analyses, four pre-service science teachers were selected among 38 pre-service science teachers and the second phase started. In this phase, a research was performed to find out how the conceptualizations about nature of science of these four pre-service science teachers affect their informal reasoning processes. Descriptive analysis and content analysis were used for the data analyses. According to the findings, it was revealed that pre-service science teachers have difficulty with defining the scientific data about the global warming, which is a socioscientific issue, in their informal reasoning processes and that they qualify experiment and observation as the basic elements of science. The general opinion is that the scientific knowledge might change under the influence of various factors. On the other hand pre-service science teachers cannot suggest a clear idea about cultural and social embeddedness of science and they are in a result-based informal reasoning process about this issue.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n3p297