Views of Science Teachers About Educational Value of History of Science

The history of science is a discipline that takes as subject the ways in which scientific knowledge passes, what kind of knowledge and what contributions are made, what methods scientists use to make these contributions, and the means and tools they use. It is very important that the history of science is included in the curriculum. Through the history of science, students have an opportunity to a more comprehensive view of science when they understand how scientific knowledge evolves and how history, philosophy, and technological context affect that development. Therefore, students are expected to be more interested in learning about science. They will be able to see concrete examples of scientific studies and understand that producing scientific information is a process. That will also enable students to realize that science is a product of mankind and that every scientific advancement is affected by a number of social dynamics. It is therefore thought that it is important for students to be informed about the scientific contributions of civilizations and cultures. In order for science history to be used effectively in science lessons, it is necessary for teachers to understand the value and importance of it. In this study, it was aimed to determine the thoughts of science teachers about the educational value of science history. That is a descriptive study. Science teachers who participated in the study work in different provinces of Turkey. The data were collected through a scale called "Teacher's Opinions on the Instructional Value of History of Science" prepared by La？in-？imsek and ？al？？kan (2016). The collected data were analyzed by SPSS 18 program. According to the results of the analysis, the teachers had a favorable opinion about the educational value of science history; this opinion does not depend on the graduation department, the educational status, the seniority and the status of taking the course of history and/or nature of science; but it is seen that interest in the history of science has changed according to the variables of books and magazine reading, documentary and film watching related to the history of science and it is seen to be more positive