Argues that current thinking about science teaching and conceptual change needs to be counterbalanced by contextual or cultural constructivist ideas. A collaborative view should include the sociological study of cultural milieus in which scientific ideas arise. The logic of discovery from a sociological point of view implies that conceptual change…

American preservice science teachers' responses on Kimball's Nature of Science Survey (NOSS) were used as a basis for analyzing the sense of the nature of science held by a group of Nigerian preservice science teachers. The differences between the two groups and implications for international scientific cooperation are discussed. (Author/YP)

Some interesting work currently being done in science education research is with scientifically misconceived ideas about the causes and mechanisms of natural phenomena. Though not stated explicitly, it can be inferred from the corpus of this misconception research that an assumption of homogeneity among students is made, even where there is…