Concept Maps as Tools for Assessing Students’ Epistemologies of Science

Abstract

The use of concept maps as instruments for assessing preservice teachers’
epistemologies of science (their ideas of the nature of scientific knowledge) was
evaluated in this study. Twenty-three preservice elementary teachers’ responses to the
Views of the Nature Of Science (VNOS) questionnaire were compared to concept maps
created in response to the general probe, “What is science?” While VNOS responses
allowed a richer analysis of the content and quality of the participants’ epistemologies,
the concept maps provided information about structural changes of participants’
epistemologies as well as how those epistemologies relate to their overall conceptions of
science as a field of study. Both instruments also revealed important connections between
NOS tenets, which were more numerous on the concept maps but more informative on
the VNOS, and between NOS tenets and pedagogical issues. Implications for assessment
of students’ epistemologies of science in classrooms are discussed.