Effects of an explicit reflective approach on Swaziland pre-service elementary teachers' understanding of the Nature of Science

[摘要] In this study, the effects of an explicit reflective intervention on Swaziland elementary preserviceteachers' understanding of the Nature of Science (NOS) were investigated. The factorsthat had an impact on the development of participants' NOS views were also investigated. Theintervention made use of de-contextualized and contextualized activities as well as historicalnarratives as contexts for reflecting about the empirical, creative, subjective as well as thetentative NOS. The intervention included a discussion of the relationships and differencesbetween observations and inferences as well as scientific laws and theories in the context of theaforementioned learning activities. Participants were 24 elementary pre-service teachers enrolled for their final year of their threeyear teacher development programme. An adapted version of the Views of Nature of ScienceQuestionnaire-Form C (VNOS-C) was used in conjunction with individual interviews, to assessthe participants' understanding of NOS at the beginning and conclusion of the intervention. Atthe end of the programme, data from interviews, concept maps and reflective journals of sevenparticipants were analysed to ascertain their perceptions of the elements of the course and otherfactors that had an impact on their development of more informed NOS views. Theseparticipants were selected on the basis of their differential gains in NOS understanding.The data that was analysed using both qualitative and quantitative techniques revealed that theintervention brought about significant gains in some participants' understanding of NOS.Information obtained from the document analysis of journals and concept maps as well as exitinterviews of the selected group revealed that the pre-service teachers' development of moreinformed views was mediated by motivational and cognitive factors. These were theparticipants' perception of the value of teaching and learning NOS, their views about teachingand learning science, and their ability to engage deeply with the NOS concepts as well as theirepistemic beliefs. The explicit reflective attention to NOS as well as metacognitive strategieswas reported by most of the selected participants as responsible for changes in their NOS views.

[发布机构] University of Pretoria