Importance of teachers’ beliefs in development of scientific literacy

Science teachers communicate curricula goals to their students, prepare teaching situations and lead their students through them in order to learn science. The purpose of this study was to identify the beliefs of teachers about teaching and learning, specifically, what the teachers focus on, how they comprehend knowledge and their role in the process of learning since they can promote or hold back development of scientific literacy. Q methodology was used to investigate the beliefs of 65 science teachers by having them rank and sort a series of 51 statements. Factor analysis was used to identify identical patterns. The analysis showed that the teachers held four types of dominant beliefs about the effectiveness of science instruction and some common feature which have potential to influence educational process. Teachers concentrate on covering the content even if they declare the importance of personal construction, feel responsible for students’ learning and its outcomes. Despite stressing the activity of the students, the teachers did not emphasize particular science process skills and scaffolding process. The findings of the study suggest that systematic trainings focused on the nature of science and the scaffolding process would be beneficial for teachers in all identified factors.