Nature of science (NOS) has for a long time, and for a number of reasons been regarded a key ingredient in the teaching for scientific literacy. Much has been written about teachers’ views of NOS and how NOS is taught in the science classroom, but little is known about teachers’ views of the teaching of NOS. To be able to better understand how NOS becomes (or does not become) a part of science education, teachers’ ways of making meaning of NOS teaching needs to be investigated. Therefore, in this project, we try to shed light on teachers’ perspectives on NOS teaching at different levels in compulsory school. We also explore how the teaching of NOS is planned for, and implemented, throughout a three-year research project. The participants are Swedish in-service science teachers (n=12) in grades 3-9. They are teachers who, initially, have no specific training in NOS or NOS teaching (something they have in common with most science teachers in Sweden), but expected to teach NOS according to the national curriculum. During the project the teachers meet in focus groups, guided by a researcher, and discuss NOS and the teaching of NOS. Sources of data are questionnaires, interviews, focus-group discussions and classroom observations. The analytical framework used in this study is an elaboration of the NOS tenets in Lederman (2007) from an interdisciplinary Science Studies perspective. The results from the first part of the study indicate that although the teachers have access to different ways of speaking about NOS their ways of speaking become less elaborated in reference to NOS teaching. The teachers discuss both possible pros (e.g. student motivation, and NOS as a counterpart to the image of science as “black-and-white”) and cons (e.g. “good students” will be disadvantaged and difficulties for students to handle abstract topics.

Traditional science teaching often has a focus on ready-made facts. Including nature of science (NOS) in science teaching has been discussed as a way to broaden the images of science. However, there is a gap between research on NOS teaching and practice. As teachers are important keys to what takes place in the classroom this study has focused on their perspectives and ways of making meaning of NOS as an element of science teaching. Six science teachers took part in a longitudinal study on NOS and NOS teaching that spanned three years. The data consists of questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations, and focus-group discussions. The main data source is the recorded and transcribed focus-group discussions from all three years (N=12). A qualitative content analysis was performed and teachers’ perspectives were interpreted through the theoretical frameworks of scientific literacy and science teaching traditions. The results show that teachers talked about NOS teaching as something new that differed from their traditional teaching of “facts and lab-work”. However, they often welcomed NOS teaching as a way to challenge stereotypical, black-and-white images of science, as well as a means to reach overarching goals of science education such as developing students’ abilities for critical thinking.

Science education research on nature of science (NOS) has mostly focused students’ and teachers’ views of NOS, while less attention has been paid to the appropriateness of various NOS aspects at different levels in the educational system. Even more scarce is research focusing teachers’ perspectives on these matters. The aim of this study is to: 1) analyze NOS progression in the Swedish national curriculum, and 2) investigate science teachers’ perspectives on a NOS progression for year 1-9. Participants in the study are Swedish in-service science teachers (grades 1-9) who took part in a three-year research-project focusing NOS teaching. Throughout the project the teachers met in focus-group discussions. They also planned and implemented NOS lessons in their classrooms. Sources of data are: 1) curriculum material, and 2) two focus groups meetings about NOS progression (recorded and transcribed). The results show that many NOS aspects are, at least implicitly, part of the Swedish curriculum, but no specific progression is described. The teachers’ suggestions for NOS progression are based on arguments concerning the level of abstractness. Theoretical approaches and unfamiliar contexts are considered abstract, while hands-on activities, everyday contexts, and historical cases are considered concrete approaches to NOS.

The inclusion of nature of science (NOS) in science education has for a long  time been regarded as crucial. There is, however, a lack of research on appropriate NOS aspects for different educational levels. An even more neglected area of research is that focusing on teachers’ perspectives on NOS teaching at different levels. The aim of this article is to examine NOS progression in the light of teachers’ suggestions and rationales. In order to obtain teachers’ informed perspectives, we chose to involve six teachers (teaching grades 1–9) in a 3-year research project. They took part in focus group discussions about NOS and NOS teaching as well as implemented jointly planned NOS teaching sessions. Data that this article builds on was collected at the end of the project. The teachers’ suggestions for NOS progression often relied on adding more NOS issues at every stage, thereby creating the foundations of a broader but not necessarily deeper understanding of NOS. Five rationales, for if/when specific NOS issues are appropriate to introduce, emerged from the analysis of the teacher discussions. Some of these rationales, including practice makes perfect and increasing levels of depth can potentially accommodate room for many NOS issues in the science classroom, while maturity and experience instead has a restricting effect on NOS teaching. Also, choice of context and teaching approaches play an important role in teachers’ rationales for whether specific NOS issues  should be included or not at different stages. The article discusses the implications for teacher education and professional development.

The inclusion of nature of science (NOS) in science education, has for a long time been regarded a crucial component in the teaching for scientific literacy. Much has been written about teachers’ views of NOS and how NOS is taught in the science classroom, but less is known about the teachers’ views of the teaching of NOS. To be able to better understand how NOS becomes (or does not become) a part of science education, teachers’ views of the teaching of NOS needs to be investigated. Therefore, in this project, we aim to shed light on teachers’ ways of coping with two different approaches to NOS teaching – contextualized and decontextualized. We explore how the teaching of NOS is planned for, and communicated in the science classroom, as well as what difficulties and gains the teachers experience with the different approaches. The participants are Swedish in-service science teachers (n=6) in grades 3-9. During the project the teachers meet in focus groups, guided by a researcher, and discuss NOS and the teaching of NOS. Sources of data are audio recorded focus-group discussions and classroom observations. The results indicate that both approaches have benefits. A larger amount and more complex NOS aspects are addressed in the context-rich approach. However, the teachers in this study find the decontextualized task easier to fit within the traditional science-teaching frame.

The inclusion of "nature of science" (NOS) in science education has for a long time been regarded as a crucial component in the teaching for scientific literacy. The aim of this study is to investigate how in-service science teachers plan, implement, and afterwards reflect on a NOS teaching session. The participants in the study are Swedish in-service science teachers (n=4) in grades 4-9. Sources of data are teacher-group discussions (before and after the NOS-session), classroom observations, and teachers’ reflective notes. The analytical framework used in this study is developed with a point of departure in the NOS tenets described by Lederman (2007). The preliminary results indicate that although the teachers in different ways explicitly address many different aspects of NOS during the teaching sessions, and they believe that their students are interested in the provided tasks, the teachers themselves are having a hard time coping with the clash between the implemented NOS-session and more traditional views of science teaching.

Students' interest in science is declining. Science teaching often have science as facts as its main focus. In such science teaching there is often little room for socio-cultural aspects of science. It has, however, been shown that students could gain more interest in science if broader perspectives are included. Making socio-cultural aspects a topic in the science classroom is considered hard. In order to gain more knowledge about issues related to the implementation of socio-cultural aspects in the science classroom we have focused on teachers' perspectives. In this presentation we will provide results from a three-year research-project. It is a case study of six teachers, teaching science in grades 1-9. During the project the teachers met in focus groups four times a year and discussed different aspects of science. During the focus-group meetings they also planned and reflected on classroom activities with a focus on socio-cultural issues, which they implemented between meetings. Questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations where used in addition to the data collected from the focus groups. The results provide information on teachers' perspectives on appropriate approaches and activities for different years, as well as information about teachers' perspectives on both challenges and benefits from implementing socio-cultural aspects.

Nature of science (NOS) has for a long time been regarded as a key component in science teaching. Much research has focused on students’ and teachers’ views of NOS, while less attention has been paid to teachers’ perspectives on NOS teaching. This article focuses on in-service science teachers’ ways of talking about NOS and NOS teaching, e.g. what they talk about as possible and valuable to address in the science classroom, in Swedish compulsory school. These teachers (N = 12) are, according to the national curriculum, expected to teach NOS, but have no specific NOS training. The analytical framework described in this article consists of five themes that include multiple perspectives on NOS. The results show that teachers have less to say when they talk about NOS teaching than when they talk about NOS in general. This difference is most obvious for issues related to different sociocultural aspects of science. Difficulties in — and advantages of — NOS teaching, as put forth by the teachers, are discussed in relation to traditional science teaching, and in relation to teachers’ perspectives on for which students science teaching will be perceived as meaningful and comprehensible. The results add to understanding teachers’ reasoning when confronted with the idea that NOS should be part of science teaching. This in turn provides useful information that can support the development of NOS courses for teachers.