Promoting preservice chemistry teachers' understanding about the nature of science through history

The purpose of this quasi‐experimental study was to document the benefits of teaching chemistry through history. The experimental group consisted of seniors enrolled in a teacher preparation program in which they learned how to teach chemistry through the history of science. Their understanding of the nature of science was compared with that of a control group, which consisted of juniors in the same department. The results of the analysis of covariance revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on an instrument documenting respondents' understanding of the nature of science. Additional frequency analysis and interview data indicated that the experimental group students had a better understanding of the nature of creativity, the theory‐based nature of scientific observations, and the functions of theories. In the pretreatment interviews, students in the experimental group based their explanations concerning the nature of science primarily on their intuition. In the posttreatment interview, however, they were able to explain their beliefs by using scientists' arguments or hypotheses as examples. This result indicates that the experimental group's understanding about the nature of science was enhanced by learning to teach through the history of science. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 773–792, 2002