Elementary School Teachers' Understanding of Nature of Science: a Study on Rural, Bordered, Coastal, and Urban Areas of North Kalimantan

It cannot be denied that people face various issues and they have to make decisions for those issues. People should have appropriate knowledge to make decision. Mostly, the most important knowledge that people have to know is science, especially to know that science is a process. In order to know science as process, people should have understanding in nature of science. The best way to introduce the nature of science is teaching in basic level of formal education, which is elementary school. Therefore, elementary school teachers have to understand the nature of science concept so they can integrate it during teaching and learning process. Because of the importance of understanding the nature of science, having information on elementary school teachers' understanding on nature of science is crucial. One of instruments that can be used to assess this knowledge is View of Nature of Science (VNOS) form B. This instrument was given to thirty-six elementary school teachers from four different areas in North Kalimantan. The result shows that there are 72% respondents who have no understanding in nature of science, 23% respondents are having little understanding in nature of science, and the rest understand nature of science. It can be concluded that most of elementary school teachers in North Kalimantan do not understand the nature of science concepts.