A science faculty's transformation of nature of science understanding into his teaching graduate level chemistry course

Abstract

This is an interpretive case study to examine the teaching of an experienced science faculty who had a strong interest in teaching undergraduate and graduate science courses and nature of science specifically. It was interested in how he transformed knowledge from his experience as a scientist and his ideas about nature of science into forms accessible to his students. Data included observations (through the 12-week semester) and field notes, Views of Nature of Science-Form B, as well as semi-structured interview. Deductive analysis based on existing codes and categories was applied. Results revealed that robust SMK and interest in nature of science helped him address the different nature of science aspects, and produce original content-embedded examples for teaching nature of science. Although he was able to include nature of science as a part of a graduate course and to address nature of science myths that graduate students had, nature of science assessment was missing in his teaching. When subject matter knowledge and nature of science understanding support each other, it may be a key element in successful nature of science learning and teaching. Similar to science teachers, the development of assessment of nature of science may take more time than the development of other components of instruction (i.e., instructional strategy) for science faculties. Hence, this result may be an indication of the specific need for support to develop this component of teaching.