Chemistry teachers’ views on the nature of science and history and philosophy of science

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper was to investigate chemistry teachers’ attitudes towards certain characteristics of the nature of science and history and philosophy of science, and the influence of those views on their teaching practice. The sample comprised 272 chemistry teachers. A questionnaire was used for data collection. Most teachers recognised some characteristics of the nature of science. Slightly more than half of the respondents partially agreed that there should be more topics from history and philosophy of science in classes, that those topics could positively influence students’ attitudes towards science and solutions of the problems of modern society. The respondents who had attended courses in the history of science/chemistry expressed significantly more positive attitudes towards inclusion of more historical and philosophical topics in classes. However, teachers aged 31–40 and with 6–15 years of work experience had the least positive attitudes towards many variables.

KEYWORDS:

• Chemistry teachers’ views
• nature of science
• history of science
• philosophy of science

Acknowledgments

Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia

Contract number: 451-03-9/2021-14/ 200168

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia [451-03-9/2021-14/200168].