Given the impact of textbooks on learning, this study assesses the five most frequently used secondary school biology textbooks in Turkey to examine the nature and the quality of treatment given to the nature of science. A qualitative oriented approach was employed and ethnographic content analysis was used as the methodological framework for this particular research. Data were analyzed by means of cognitive maps. The investigation revealed a number of serious problems with the way nature of science is portrayed in the textbooks. Science was generally portrayed as collection of facts, not as a dynamic process of generating and testing alternative explanations about nature. The authors of the textbooks often appeared not to understand the processes well enough to explain them to students and therefore presented various misleading and inadequate descriptions regarding scientific enterprise, similar to those revealed by research on science teachers' and students' understandings of science. Furthermore, some important aspects of science were found to be neglected by textbooks. The study discusses the future success of scientific literacy movement in Turkey and has implications for science education, science curriculum, and science teacher education in Turkey and other developing countries. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 93: 422–447, 2009

Although understandings of scientific inquiry (as opposed to conducting inquiry) are included in science education reform documents around the world, little is known about what students have learned about inquiry during their elementary school years. This is partially due to the lack of any assessment instrument to measure understandings about scientific inquiry. However, a valid and reliable assessment has recently been developed and published, Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI; Lederman et al. [2014], Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51, 65–83). The purpose of this large‐scale international project was to collect the first baseline data on what beginning middle school students have learned about scientific inquiry during their elementary school years. Eighteen countries/regions spanning six continents including 2,634 students participated in the study. The participating countries/regions were: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Mainland China, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. In many countries, science is not formally taught until middle school, which is the rationale for choosing seventh grade students for this investigation. This baseline data will simultaneously provide information on what, if anything, students learn about inquiry in elementary school, as well as their beginning knowledge as they enter secondary school. It is important to note that collecting data from all of the approximately 200 countries globally was not humanly possible, and it was also not possible to collect data from every region of each country. The results overwhelmingly show that students around the world at the beginning of grade seven have very little understandings about scientific inquiry. Some countries do show reasonable understandings in certain aspects but the overall picture of understandings of scientific inquiry is not what is hoped for after completing 6 years of elementary education in any country.

ABSTRACT:Given the important role of science teacher educators in developing science teachers' understandings of nature of science (NOS), this study explores 15 Turkish "prospective" science teacher educators' beliefs about NOS in the context of teacher education reform in Turkey. A reflection-oriented qualitative approach was adopted in the investigation. Data were collected through two sets of interviews with the participants and analyzed by means of cognitive maps. The analysis of data revealed that most of the participants of the study had inadequate conceptions regarding NOS. The majority of these inadequate conceptions were concentrated under two aspects of NOS: scientific method and the tentative NOS. The participants' inadequate conceptions appeared to be linked to a lack of prior reflection about NOS. The study has implications for the preservice preparation of science teacher educators, teacher education reform, and teacher thinking at both the practical and the policy levels.

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Background: This study describes how teachers' nature of science (NOS) views changed throughout an innovative Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program that provided sustained support throughout the process in a collaborative and reflective environment and activities that are consistent with the current curriculum and NOS tenets integrated within. Eighteen in-service science teachers enrolled in a yearlong nature of science, Continuing Professional Development (NOS-CPD) program. Data were collected by pre/post-interviews using the Views of Nature of ScienceForm C (VNOS-C) questionnaire, and a post-interview using an open-ended questionnaire developed by researchers to uncover teacher reactions to the NOS-CPD program. Results: The results indicated that the NOS-CPD program improved the teachers' NOS views more effectively than previously reported short-term teacher development programs, and thus, the findings should be useful for future studies in support of the professional development of teachers. Conclusions: The article concludes with practical advice for implementing NOS-focused, in-service teacher development programs.