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Nature of worldview presuppositions among science teachers in botswana, indonesia, japan, nigeria, and the philippines
Author(s) -
Ogunniyi Meshach B.,
Jegede Olugbenro J.,
Ogawa Masakata,
Yandila Cephas D.,
Oladele Femi K.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of research in science teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.067
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1098-2736
pISSN - 0022-4308
DOI - 10.1002/tea.3660320805
Subject(s) - presupposition , viewpoints , cognitive dissonance , context (archaeology) , science education , epistemology , sociology , premise , psychology , sign (mathematics) , mathematics education , social psychology , geography , philosophy , art , mathematical analysis , mathematics , archaeology , visual arts
The focus of this study was to identify the nature of worldview presuppositions held by a group of science teachers from five non‐western cultures. The results show that the subjects, irrespective of their cultural backgrounds, hold identical worldview presuppositions. It is not clear at this exploratory stage to what extent the subjects' alternative viewpoints influenced their scientific outlook or their science teaching. However, an analysis of the subjects' viewpoints suggests either poor conceptualizations of the nature of science or a form of collateral thinking, whereby an individual accepts or uses both mechanistic and anthropomorphic explanations depending on the context in question and without exhibiting any sign of cognitive dissonance. The implications of such a scenario for the teaching‐learning process are highlighted.