Turkish Pre‐Service Science Teachers’ Views on Science–Technology–Society Issues

Date

2007-2-26

Author

Yalvac, Bugrahan
Öztekin, Ceren
Cakiroglu, Jale
Kahyaoglu, Elvan

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The international science education community recognises the role of pre-service science teachers' views about the interdependence of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) in achieving scientific literacy for all. To this end, pre-service science teachers' STS views signal the strengths and the weaknesses of science education reform movements. Turkey, a country that follows the international reform movement, aims at improving citizen's understanding of the STS interdependence to enable them to fully participate in an industrialised, democratic society. This study explores the Turkish pre-service science teachers' views (n = 176) on STS issues and discusses the ongoing reform efforts' strengths and weaknesses within the context of the study findings. Data were collected through an adopted "Views on Science - Technology - Society" instrument. Analysis revealed that many participants held realistic views on science, technology, and society interdependence, while their views on technology and the nature of science were differed. Some viewed technology as an application of science, and some viewed science as explanatory and an interpretation of nature. Most agreed that the scientific knowledge is tentative but they did not present a thorough understanding of the differences between hypotheses, laws, and theories.

Subject Keywords

Turkey, Pre-service science teachers, Science-Technology-Society, Scientific literacy

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/28388

Collections

Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Article