Journal of Science Teacher Education

Nature of Science and Science Teacher Education

Conceptualizing the nature of scientific knowledge (NOSK) is important and yet, there are widespread misconceptions about what NOS is about and how it can be effectively incorporated in science teacher education. Incorporating NOS into science lessons is essential, and yet most teachers continue to find teaching of NOS challenging, and as a consequence, many students do not graduate understanding essential aspects of how science works, an important component of basic scientific literacy. 

In this special issue we encourage submissions of papers and research for review that help to bridge the gap between research and practice, particularly examples of how NOS can be a useful component of instruction in K-12 classrooms and beyond. We encourage manuscripts that share the importance of science teacher development in enhancing NOS understandings and teaching as well as the significance of NOS for science curricula. Research focusing on different methods of NOS instruction, teaching and learning of NOS in different content areas, and experiences of science teachers of different grade levels are welcome contributions to the special issue. The papers can also include different aspects of NOS in science education including those that focus on how effective NOS instruction can be scaled up in science teaching and learning. Further themes include explorations of policy topics and barriers to the uptake of NOS in everyday schools and science lessons, and the role of science teacher education in surpassing such barriers.