Spanish SecondarySchool Science Teachers’ Beliefs

Authors: Ángel VázquezAlonso Antonio GarcíaCarmona María Antonia ManasseroMas Antoni BennàssarRoig

Publish Date: 2012/01/24

Volume: 22, Issue: 5, Pages: 1191-1218

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Abstract

This study analyzes the beliefs about sciencetechnologysociety and other Nature of Science NOS themes of a large sample 613 of Spanish pre and inservice secondary education teachers through their responses to 30 items of the Questionnaire of Opinions on Science Technology and Society The data were processed by means of a multiple response model to generate the belief indices used as the bases for subsequent quantitative and qualitative analyses Other studies have reported a negative profile of teachers’ understanding in this area but the diagnosis emerging from the present work is more complex There was a mix of appropriate beliefs coexisting with others that are inappropriate on the topics analyzed The overall assessment however is negative since clearly teachers need to have a better understanding of these questions There were scant differences between the pre and inservice teachers and hence no decisive evidence that the practice of teaching contributes to improving the inservice teachers’ understanding These results suggest there is an urgent need to bring the initial and continuing education of science teachers up to date to improve their understanding of these topics of science curricula and thus improve the teaching of scienceInvest in scientific research because it improves the quality of life for example medical cures answers to pollution and increased knowledge Technological research on the other hand has worsened the quality of life for example atomic bombs pollution automation etc1Invest in neither The quality of life will not improve with advances in science and technology but will improve with investments in other sectors of society for example social welfare education job creation programs the fine arts foreign aid etc1

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