The aim of this study is to investigate the views of preservice
science teachers on science-technology-society, STS, issue. A total of 176 preservice science teachers participated in the study. A 26-item &ldquo / Views on Science-Technology-Society (VOSTS)&rdquo / instrument, translated and adapted into Turkish, were utilized to assess participants&rsquo / views on STS. The VOSTS (Aikenhead, Ryan and Fleming, 1989) is a pool of 114 empirically developed multiple-choice items with nine categories. In order to understand participants&rsquo / views on STS in depth, semi-structured interviews were also conducted by 9 volunteer preservice science teachers.
The results gave a colorful picture of the views of preservice
science teachers on science-technology-society issue. The analysis revealed that preservice science teachers often confuse the definitions of technology with science. Most of the participants of the study had specific views about the reasons of doing scientific researches in their country, for example, to be independent from other countries, to get
financial profit. Results displayed a consensus on the possible positive effects of upbringing and the importance of education given to high school students. According to the data obtained from the present study, respondents possess varied views about the influences of society on science and technology. While preservice science teachers claiming that scientists could break the rules of science, they also claimed scientists as objective in their study. On the other hand, participants supported the view that scientists&rsquo / concern on all the effects of their experiments. Preservice science teachers advocated also that technological developments can be controlled by citizens.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12605091/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 July 2004 |
| Creators | Kahyaoglu, Elvan |
| Contributors | Cakiroglu, Jale |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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