Examines whether teachers' views about the nature of science and scientific inquiry are reflected in their choice and design of learning experiences (particularly laboratory activities) and, therefore, are significant influences on students' understanding of science. (SM)

By characterizing what 20 years of teaching history and philosophy of science have suggested to the author, this paper shows that this teaching has sown the seeds of skepticism and disbelief in a fashion parallel to that in which the introduction of science as a skeptical method vis-a-vis theology undermined belief in God. (SM)

Argues that the greatest barrier to science education is overcoming students' naive conceptions of science. Recommends helping students to maintain a sense of dissatisfaction with their archaic notions of the nature of science, essentially a philosophical sense of the difficulty of the problems involved. (SM)