Reflections of Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Understanding of the Nature of Science on a Socioscientific Issue

Abstract This study aims to determine third-year pre-service science teachers’ conceptions of the nature of science (NOS) to examine the reflections of their NOS conceptions in the process of socioscientific reasoning and to address the status of their NOS conceptualizations in scientific and socioscientific contexts. The research used a qualitative design. Views about the Nature of Science Questionnaire-C (VNOS-C) and Decision-Making Survey on Socioscientific Issues: COVID-19 (SBKKA-COVID-19) were used as data collection tools. Descriptive analysis and content analysis were used together to analyze the data. The study’s findings show that pre-service teachers generally have a naive understanding of NOS and that the reflection of their understanding of the nature of science on the socioscientific reasoning process is limited. It is seen that there are differences in their understanding of scientific and socioscientific contexts in the sub-dimensions of the changeability of scientific knowledge and understanding of the role of sociocultural factors in science. The findings obtained from the study were discussed using the related literature, and some inferences were made regarding science education.