| Improving the scientific literacy of all students has been established as a scientific objective of the course in a new round curriculum reform of the basic education. As an important part of scientific literacy, the nature of science has already become one of the hot spots of domestic and foreign research. Teachers are the main bodies of teaching, thus their roles in the curriculum implementation process cannot be ignored. It is well known that the nature of science of teachers can affect the teachers’ behavior, thereby affecting the formation and development of the nature of science of students. The junior high school integrated science curriculum reform in Zhejiang has been started since more than20years ago, and a science teacher team structure has been constructed. However, the development of the nature of science of the science teachers is rarely studied, and how to make an in-depth study on the differences between the nature of science of the specialized science teachers and that of the integrated science teachers is still an open issue. This dissertation provides an empirical research on the specialized science teachers and the integrated science teachers, which is expected to provide a reference for our science teachers’ professional development as well as the integrated curriculum reform.Based on the literature review, a sample of111science teachers, including56specialized science teachers (including physics, chemistry, biology, geography) from four junior high schools in Beijing and55integrated science teachers from five junior high schools in Hangzhou are tested with the VANSK instrument, and the statistical results are analyzed by SPSS16.0. The observations can be summarized as follows.1. From a general point of view, the nature of science of the specialized science teachers and that of integrated science teachers are both between the traditional conception and the modern conception, and are a little inclined to the latter one. Moreover, the latter is better than the former.2. The main characteristics of scientific knowledge of the integrated science teachers is significantly superior to that of the specialized science teachers, and there is a more in-depth understanding for the integrated science teachers in the cultural aspects of scientific knowledge compared with the specialized science teachers.3. With respect to the understanding of science knowledge implying imagination and diversity of creativity and scientific research, either the specialized science teachers or the integrated science teachers are good. However, they both perform worst in the culture of scientific research compared with other aspects.To further understanding the idea of science teachers, the dissertation constructs in-depth interview among7science teachers are willing to be involved in the investigation, including3 specialized science teachers and4integrated science teachers, with a semi-structural interview syllabus based on the VNOS-C developed by Lederman. The observations can be summarized as follows.1. These two types of science teachers are between the traditional stage and the profound stage, and are a little inclined to the former one.2. With respect to the understanding of the theories and laws, the observation and inference, and the cultural nature, the specialized science teachers perform better than the integrated science teachers. On the other hand, the integrated science teachers perform slightly better in the areas of imagination/creativity and theAccording to the conclusions above, we made the following recommendations from the three levels, in terms of the educational and administrative departments, schools and individual teachers:1) Firm the belief of specialized teaching and adhere to push forwards the comprehensive curriculum reform;2) Develop the integrated science curriculum and bring it to the forefront of curriculum reform;3) Pay attention to HPS, focus on the interdisciplinary field and make regular progress with the teaching reflection. |
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