An Investigation of Prospective Science Teachers’ Conceptions towards the Nature of Scientific Knowledge

The aim of this study is to determine prospective science teachers’ conceptions about the nature of scientific knowledge and to investigate their conceptions in terms of different variables. The sample comprised of 196 prospective science teachers from Ataturk University during the 2013-2014 spring semester. The Nature of Scientific Knowledge Scale, which was developed by Rubba & Andersen (1978) and adopted by Kılıç, Sungur, Çakıroğlu, & Tekkaya (2005), was used. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The findings indicated that prospective teachers generally had moderate-level conceptions about the nature of scientific knowledge. The findings also indicated that there was a statistically significant difference in terms of grade level, but not gender.