Teachers’ conceptions about science: a perspective from realism

AGUSTÍN ADÚRIZ BRAVO; RAFAEL AMADOR; LORENA INZILLO; LAURA PERESAN; MARÍA VICTORIA PLAZA; ALEJANDRO PUJALTE; OLIMPIA LOMBARDI

Tesalónica

Congreso; 11th International IHPST Conference; 2011

International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group

Research on misconceptions around the nature of science has proven to have essential relevance in the field of didactics of science (i.e., science education as a discipline). One of such misconceptions is related to the notion of realism prevailing among teachers; this is the focus of the present paper. The framework of this proposal is the particular perspective called NOS (nature of science), which belongs to the broader research and innovation area called HPS (contributions from the history and philosophy of science to science teaching). We conceive NOS as a system of meta-theoretical content that could prove very valuable for science education. The issue of realism belongs to such system.