Education in Africa 
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| Title: | Indigenous Zimbabwean science teachers' understanding of the nature of science relative to models of the nature of science and relative to profiles of teachers in two countries |
| Author: | Shumba, Overson |
| Year: | 1995 |
| Periodical: | Zimbabwe Journal of Educational Research (ISSN 1013-3445) |
| Volume: | 7 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Period: | July |
| Pages: | 115-157 |
| Language: | English |
| Notes: | biblio. refs. |
| Geographic terms: | Zimbabwe Southern Africa |
| Subjects: | science education secondary education education Teaching Secondary schools Social influence |
| Abstract: | This article describes perceptions held by secondary science teachers of the nature of science and how their perceptions are related to their commitment to indigenous cultural values, instructional ideology and awareness of environmental conservation. It is based on a survey of 66 in-service secondary science teachers enrolled in the Bachelor of Education degree course at the University of Zimbabwe in 1994. Their perceptions were compared to M. Kimball's (1967) model of the nature of science, and P.A. Rubba and O. Andersen's (1978) model of the nature of scientific knowledge. Their perceptions were also compared to those of science teachers in Nigeria and the USA. The Zimbabwean teachers tended to view science in terms of the production of useful technology and the improvement of human welfare, and they accepted the view of science as an organized body of knowledge. They perceived that there was a single scientific method which had a determinate number of steps. Academic, professional and sociocultural background variables were not related to teachers' perceptions of the nature of science. Orientation to indigenous culture was positively correlated with a preference for traditional instructional ideology and both variables were negatively correlated with nature of science scores. Bibliogr., sum. |