IDEAS EPISTEMOLÓGICAS SOBRE LA NATURALEZA DE LA CIENCIA DE DOCENTES EN FORMACIÓN DE BIOLOGÍA Y DE QUÍMICA

«Epistemological ideas about the nature of science in preservice biology and chemistry teachers». In this case study was carried out a diagnosis of the conceptions about the nature of science in a group of twenty preservice biology and chemistry teachers at the UPEL-IPC, Venezuela, who had finished the 2006-II semester. Several aspects of the nature of science were considered: scientific methodology, observation, scientific experimentation, tentative na ture of scientific knowledge, dynamic generation of scientific knowledge, relation theory-law, relation theory-hypothesis and relation science-society. The results of the content analysis of the answers revealed that students manifested epistemological ideas with a traditional tendency about most of the aspects considered in this study, except the tentative nature of scientific knowledge and the dynamic generation of knowledge; the social-science relation presented a high percentage of non manifested ideas. The results are consistent with other studies and constitute a diagnostic basis for the design of a future didactic intervention.