Understanding of Student Teachers of Science Education from the Nature of Science:) A Case Study of Tehran Teacher Training Centers

The objective of this research is studying the perception of student teachers of science education of the empirical nature of science in the teacher training centers of Tehran province. Method of the research was descriptive and field-searching. The statistical society consists of all the male and female teachers and students of science education in the teacher training centers of Tehran province. Since the population of the society was only 300 people, the sampling was carried out by the WRT sampling method. For data collection, the researcher designed a 31-component questionnaire. The content validity of the questionnaire was assessed by experts and its construct validity was assessed through exploratory factor analysis. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by Cronbach's alpha method (α=0.84) was eventually verified. All the data were analyzed via the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, independent t-test, and ANOVA variance analysis in SPSS software. The results indicated that student teachers of experimental science education do not have a correct and sufficient understanding of the nature of science and its components -- philosophical foundations of science, different steps of an empirical method, scientific achievements – and there is no significant relation between the teaching experiences of the teacher students and their understanding of the true nature of the empirical science. In addition, there is a significant correlation at p ≤ 0.01 between the student teachers’ performances and their understanding of the nature of science, and the sex of the student teachers was also significant in understanding the nature of science.