Our inquiry uses accounts from the history of science to develop teacher-candidate (student teacher) understanding of the nature of science (NOS) in a science teacher education methods course. This understanding of the NOS is then used as a foundation for developing teacher candidate appreciation of the attributes of authentic science lessons. Based upon their understanding of the nature of science, teacher candidates plan and teach lessons and critique the experiences provided for students using their own conceptual framework of authentic science learning experiences. The study uses an instrumental case study approach in which a case is examined mainly to provide insight into an issue or for refinement of a theory; that is, does the use of the nature of science have utility for supporting teachers of science in their planning and teaching, and, in particular, for assisting them in teaching science authentically and developing a more positive perception of self as a teacher of science. Implications of this inquiry in informing the development and utility of nature of science understandings in teacher education methods courses are also considered.

This study aims to investigate the relationships among epistemological beliefs, metacognitive awareness, and nature of science (NOS). Participants were 45 preservice science teachers (PSTs) enrolled in two sections of Laboratory Application in Science II course in a university in Turkey. All of the participants were juniors with the same science major background. Participants in both groups were engaged with explicit-reflective and inquiry-based NOS instruction under conceptual change theory. This study is considered as a mixed methods concurrent embedded design model. After the intervention, all of the PSTs demonstrated developments about many of the NOS aspects. It can be concluded that inquiry-based laboratory instruction informed by the conceptual change theory provided PSTs’ improve their NOS understanding. This study revealed statistically significant relationships among the some aspects of NOS, epistemological beliefs, and metacognitive awareness. The relationships were discussed in respect to current science education literature.

There has been an increased use of authentic practices in both science and environmental education in recent years. Such practices can utilize social constructivist frameworks to consider the learning that may be taking place as students become engaged in tool use. The current study focuses on a group of elementary school students studying the Everglades in the field and in a classroom setting during one academic year. In particular, we observed students’ use of tools (identified as tool-conventions to include both artifacts and conventions) and compared their use in both settings. We found that in the field, students spent considerable amount of time engaged in data collection activity such as taking observations and measurements that resembled what scientists might be doing and included the invention of new tools to facilitate data gathering. In this context, students generally worked more independently from the teacher, collaborated in small work groups, and engaged in more self-directed inquiry. In the classroom, while some of the scientific field tools were practiced in anticipation of their use in the field, activity included more teacher direction, often resembling what might be found in other types of classroom work and the tools used there often supported this work. Models of tool use based on Yrjö Engeström’s activity approach were constructed for both settings. Implications of the results include the importance of viewing tool use in authentic learning with a sociocultural and activity perspective to reflect the socially constructed nature of such learning.

The purpose of this study is to construct a structural equation model to examine the links among attitudes, values, and behaviors pertaining to sustainability, participation in outdoor recreation as well as gender and tendency to follow mass media for university students. The data were collected by on-line administration of a survey to 958 students at Middle East Technical University during February-June of 2008. It needs to be stressed that gender emerged as a strong factor explaining sustainability-related attributes. It was reflected that female students having higher tendency to follow media held more favorable attitudes and behaviors toward sustainable life styles, and more ecocentric values. Furthermore, attitudes and values were found to be significant determinants of university students’ behaviors pertaining to sustainability. It was also reported that higher tendency to follow media yielded more favorable attitudes, higher levels of ecocentric values, and engagement in outdoor recreational activities such as walking in nature, bird watching, and camping. These results implied that the university campus should be well equipped with the necessary infrastructures that will satisfy the needs and encourage female students as well as male students to motivate them take appreciative outdoor activities. A gender perspective should be integrated into existing mainstream institutions and all programmatic areas or sectors, including education in order to hinder gender inequality. In addition, during the rehabilitation of sustainability issues in higher education institutions, favorable attitudes and values of university students should be regarded as an auxiliary agent.