Investigating Preservice Chemistry Teachers' Understanding and Views about the Diversity of Scientific Methods

The diversity of scientific methods has received increasing attention in the field of science education. This paper aimed to investigate how preservice chemistry teachers perceive scientific methods and their diversity. Based on the theoretical framework of Brandon's Matrix and previous research, two tasks (i.e., Task 1 "understanding of the components of Brandon's Matrix" and Task 2 "views on the diversity of scientific methods") and follow-up interview questions were developed in this study as research instruments. 130 preservice chemistry teachers from two universities in China were selected as participants. The statistical results of the questionnaire survey revealed that the participants showed a relatively satisfactory understanding of the components of Brandon's Matrix, and they judged the hypothesis testing more accurately than variable manipulation. However, the majority of participants held relatively naive views on the diversity of scientific methods, suggesting that they endorsed the idea of "the scientific method". Moreover, it was found by in-depth interviews that four typically held reasons led to the misunderstanding of scientific methods by preservice chemistry teachers, namely, misinterpreting the liberal meaning of item scenarios, misconceptions in identifying the "variable manipulation", grade disparity in the scientificity, and past learning experience in chemistry. At the end of this paper, the implications of the findings and the suggestions for further research were discussed.