Investigating Science Teachers' Beliefs about Science and Teaching

The purposes of this quantitative, descriptive study were to investigate Saudi science teachers' beliefs about science and science teaching, and to determine how do Saudi science teachers view educational reform in science and how do they view change in education. Addressing teachers' beliefs about science and nature, school science, teacher- student relations in the classroom, and environmental factors affecting teaching science. It was apparent that differences exist between teachers' beliefs about science and teaching and their teaching methods. Although Saudi science teachers presented inquiry-based views about science, nature, and teaching science, they do not practice these views in science class. The findings imply that educational reform in science education must simultaneously address all the components of an educational system and the concept of systemic reform, as will as the need for a standards-based learning system and establishing Benchmarks for science in Saudi education, also the structure of the reform should apply to a network base instead of to the hierarchy system.