Using Video Vignettes of Historical Episodes for Promoting Pre-Service Teachers' Ideas about the Nature of Science

This study used video vignettes of historical episodes from documentary films as a context and instructional tool to promote pre-service science teachers' (PSTs) conceptions of the nature of science (NOS). The participants received explicit-reflective NOS instruction, and were introduced to techniques to be able to use scenes from documentary films to illustrate and discuss scientific concepts, principles, processes and ideas about science. In addition, the participants were asked to critically evaluate a documentary film, select scenes from the film to illustrate and discuss ideas about science and its nature, make a presentation to their peers, and afterwards write a reflective report about their classroom teaching. A modified version of the "Views on Science-Technology-Society" (VOSTS) questionnaire was used to assess PSTs' ideas about NOS. The results indicated that compared to their ideas at the beginning of the course, many PSTs developed informed ideas about NOS during the course. Nonetheless, the instruction was not equally effective in all aspects of NOS.