Turkish Science Teachers' Views on Nature of Science: Curriculum and Implementation

The recent Nature of Science (NOS) approach that was extended from the "Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) to NOS" (Irzik & Nola, 2014) is the Reconceptualized Family Resemblance Approach to Nature of Science (RFN) (Erduran & Dagher, 2014; Kaya & Erduran, Science & Education, 25(9), 1115-1133, 2016). It is a holistic framework consisting of the cognitive-epistemic and the social-institutional system of science. One of the purposes of the study is to explore science teachers' views on NOS from the RFN perspective. Additionally, science teachers' views on the inclusion of NOS in the Turkish science curriculum and science teachers' NOS implementations were investigated in the present study. The interview and the RFN Questionnaire were conducted with ten science teachers. Although science teachers have high or moderate levels of NOS understanding, some limited or na & iuml;ve views about NOS were revealed. The NOS inclusion in the Turkish science curriculum was seen as limited, especially for the social-institutional system of science by science teachers. Furthermore, science teachers' implementations in a classroom do not include the social-institutional system. The study has some implications and suggestions for further studies.