Teaching and Learning of Nature of Scientific Knowledge and Scientific Inquiry: Building Capacity through Systematic Research-Based Professional Development

This study provides an example of a systematic professional development project designed to build capacity for the teaching of nature of science and scientific inquiry, while not sacrificing the learning of more traditional science subject matter. Specifically, this project examined the impact of a 5-year professional development project on K-12 science teachers' content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge, and their students' knowledge, related to nature of scientific knowledge (NOSK) and scientific inquiry (SI). For five years a total of 236 science teachers in K-12 participated in the project and over 23,000 students were affected by the project. During each year of professional development teachers engaged in science internships, NOSK and SI activities, model lessons, curriculum development, microteaching presentations, and assessment practices related to NOSK/SI. The pre- and post-test results from the Views of nature of Science, Form D (VNOSK-D) and the Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI) instruments indicated that teachers and their students significantly improved their understandings of NOSK/SI. In addition, analysis of teachers' microteaching lessons showed that there was a developmental continuum of teaching NOSK/SI from implicit to didactic to explicit teaching as teachers progressed through the program.