The Relationship between Teacher Candidates' Views of the Nature of Science and Their Problem Solving Skills

The aim of this research is to examine the teacher candidates' views of the nature of science and their problem-solving skills in terms of various variables and, the relationship between them. 'Science-Technology-Society Scale (VOSTS). developed by Aikenhead, Ryan & Fleming (1989) and adapted by Ari (2010) through choosing 22 items (VOSTS-TR) and 'Problem Solving Inventory (PSI)' developed by Heppner & Peterson (1982) and adapted by Sahin, Sahin & Heppner (1993) were used as data collection instruments. While teacher candidates' views differed in the sub-dimension of the VOSTS-TR, their level of problem solving skills was found to be medium and high. According to two-way ANOVA results, the interaction of problem solving skills between gender does not create a significant difference on teacher candidates' views of nature of science and its characteristic features of scientific information sub-dimension. However, the interaction of problem solving skills between educational stage that they will serve create a significant differences on teacher candidates' views of nature of science. Teacher candidates' views of the nature of science were significantly predicted by their problem solving skills. In conclusion, the teacher candidates' views of the nature of science are not at a sufficient level and their views of the nature of science affected by problem solving skills.