A Virtual, Synchronous Nature of Science Activity Sequence Within a Professional Development Workshop

Abstract

Understanding the nature of science (NOS) has been an important goal of reform efforts in science education around the world to improve the scientific literacy of students. Toward this goal, several NOS intervention studies have focused on improving NOS understanding of teachers and students. Typically, NOS interventions are implemented within science methods courses for preservice teachers or professional development (PD) workshops for inservice teachers. Our PD was designed as a virtual synchronous series of NOS activities to improve NOS understanding among international science educators. The results provide positive impacts of the series on the participants’ understanding of NOS. This work also revealed additional insights for the implementation of online NOS PD, taking into account constraints of online implementation. Future exploration of how to design NOS PD is crucial, especially in countries that have limited resources and research on NOS. Thus, we continue to design ways to bridge this gap and make science accessible to all.