Science Nature and Basic Education in-service teacher training

Abstract

When it’s intended to improve the educational practices in Science teaching, especially those related to contents about Nature of Science (NoS), it’s important to consider continued teacher education as a possible alternative, since beyond improving the quality of scientific education it can also contribute to the development of reflexive and critical thoughts related to daily actions. In this article partial results are presented from an in-progress doctoral research that aims to verify the existence of significant changes in teachers’ attitudes after their participation in a Continued Education Course in Science Teaching focusing STS. The analysed data refers to answers given by thirteen (13) individuals, Elementary Education teachers (Elementary School I) from Ribeirão Pires city, in São Paulo – Brazil, who attended a continued teacher education course focusing: Scientific Competence, Critical Thinking and Argumentation. The data here considered was collected through the application of a COCTS questionnaire (Cuestionario de Opiniones sobre la Ciencia, la Tecnologia y la Sociedade), an instrument based on valued phrases’ usage to evaluate attitudes related to the NoS. The results collected with this application indicate that teachers demonstrated naïve attitudes about the subjects related to the NoS, which leads us to reflect on the need to: include these issues in initial teacher training; offer new continued education courses with the same focus; and, foster deeper discussions in schools on necessary concepts to the development of this understanding.