RELATIONSHIP OF INSERVICE TEACHERS' UNDERSTANDING OF PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGIC TIME AND THEIR VNOS (VIEWS OF NATURE OF SCIENCE) SCORES

Today’s teachers are charged with teaching not only science facts, but also process skills or practices, and the Nature of Science, or how scientists think and work. The latter is considered especially relevant by some science education experts (Sadler, et al., 2002) in regard to controversial or socioscientific issues. In this study, practicing K-8 teachers from rural Ozarks schools who were participants in an intensive summer session of an ongoing science professional development grant, which featured instruction in geologic time and a field trip to a natural history museum, were tested. Some past teachers in the program have indicated beliefs such as the Earth having existed for only 6000 years. The teachers were administered pre-, post- and post-post tests regarding their understanding of geologic time, including both relative and absolute dating methods. They were also administered pre- , post-, and post-post tests of the Views of Nature of Science (VNOS-C) instrument (Lederman, Abd-El-Khalid, Bell, and Schwartz, 2002) and a shorter, more specific NOS instrument (Khishfe and Lederman, 2005), both of which assess understanding of the way scientists think and work. Between the post-tests and post-post-tests, teachers also participated in a two-day field trip with an internationally known geologist, who specializes in dating using conodonts, to view igneous and sedimentary fossils and rocks in roadcuts in southeast Missouri. It was hypothesized that a correlation would exist between demonstrated understanding of the principles underlying the study of Earth history and basic understanding of the way scientists think. This was based partially on the idea that Earth history is a topic that requires understanding and acceptance of evidence based on abstract and very small-to-large-scale concepts such as atomic nuclei in radiologic dating, and extensive time periods. Teacher demographic data, such as grade level taught and gender, were also analyzed and presented with results.