The Effect of Student Studies in The Nature and History of Science Lesson To The Level of The Knowledge About History of Science

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of students’ inquires in the Nature and History of Science lessons on the level of their understanding of history of science. Another purpose of this study was to give students a richer perspective about different cultures that have made contributions to the advancement of science. This study is an action research. The participants for this study consist of 65 pre-service science teachers at the beginning and 66 pre-service science teacher at the end. Students’ initial understanding of history of science measured through an open ended questionnaire that was prepared by the author. To arrange the questionnaire Science and Technology Lesson Curriculum that prepared by National Education Ministry was used. Students were challenged to choose a subject (civilization or scientist) to research. Then, the participants presented the results of their research projects on the history of science. The open-ended questionnaire was administered after students’ presentations. The content analysis of students’ responses to the open-ended questionnaire showed that while students gave examples about history of science and scientists that they had learned from the books or media at the beginning of the study, they provided more diverse and richer examples at the conclusion of the study.