Professional Development of Elementary and Science Teachers in a Summer Science Camp: Changing Nature of Science Conceptions

Many countries all over the world have recently integrated nature of science (NOS) concepts into their science education standards. Providing professional support to teachers about NOS concepts is crucially important for successful implementation of the standards. For this purpose, a summer science camp was offered to elementary and science teachers. The main objective of this research study was to investigate the progress in specific NOS concepts made by the participant teachers. The responses of the teachers regarding the NOS concepts were obtained through VNOS-C questionnaire and scored using a rubric developed by McDonald (2008). The scored teacher responses were analyzed conducting MANOVA and Repeated Measures MANOVA statistical tests. It was observed that "naïve" or "limited" views of NOS were predominant in the pretest results of the participant teachers. At the end of the summer science camp, some of the participant teachers' conceptions experienced a transition to more "informed" views of NOS. The amount of the progress made by the teachers appeared to be free from their specific teaching disciplines.