Qué naturaleza de la ciencia se presenta en los libros de química para la educación secundariaen América Latina

This piece of research had as its main aim characterising the conceptions on the nature of science (NOS) promoted in secondary chemistry textbooks from four Latin American countries. The methodological approach was qualitative; for the analysis, ten different aspects of the scientific activity («topics from the philosophy of science») were employed; each topic was modelled from five schools of 20th century philosophy of science. Results allow stating that NOS conceptions in each analysed textbook do not proceed from a single philosophical school. The NOS that is taught in chemistry books has been classified in three categories: positivism, expanded positivism, and eclecticism.