The need of every person to understand the nature of science (NOS) in order to make decisions in a
society highly influenced by developments in science and technology has been stressed in recent years.
[1] The involving history and philosophy of science in the science classes is characterized as a good
way for learning NOS and improving scientific literacy of students. Efforts for implementing history and
philosophy of science in teaching practice cannot ignore: the perspectives of teachers, their beliefs,
understanding of the main ideas and goals of teaching/learning and epistemological understanding.
[2] The survey with 272 chemistry teachers from primary schools in Serbia was conducted during the
realization of one in-service teacher training programme. The questionnaire used for the purpose of
conducting this study contained four main parts: (I) questions related to the personal data of teachers
(gender, age, years of service in education, the level of previous education, the presence of the courses
of history of chemistry and philosophy of science in their previous education); (II) questions related to
the views of the teachers on some features of NOS (for example: creativity in science, tentative nature
of science) and about the importance of history and philosophy of science in science education;
(III) questions related to the views of the teachers about the importance of history of chemistry in
chemistry teaching for student’s better understanding of chemistry; (IV) questions related to the ways
in which teachers present science to students and the types and frequency of students’ activities
in classroom with potential to improve the level of their understanding of NOS. The questionnaire
comprised closed-type questions (multiple choice questions and those with a Likert scale) and opentype
questions, requiring the respondents to give appropriate information. The teachers answered
to the questions anonymously. The obtained results showed that teachers recognize the potential of
the history of chemistry contents to contribute to better student’s understanding of chemistry. The
teachers’ answers showed that they are familiar with some features of NOS but they do not carry out
a lot of the activities which provide possibilities to students to perceive NOS and learn about it. The
results indicate the lack of courses from the history and philosophy of science during initial education
of chemistry teachers. The difference in the acquired knowledge from the history of chemistry and
philosophy of science during teachers’ initial education do not make significant difference among their
teaching practice. Regardless of whether teachers had these courses or not, they rarely use contents
associated with the history of chemistry in the classroom.
References
[1] R. Mamlok-Naaman, R. Ben-Zvi, A. Hofstein, J. Menis and S. Erduran, IJSME, 3 (2005) 485.
[2] D. Hottecke and C.C. Silva, Sci & Educ, 20 (2011) 293Book of Abstract
