233 Bulgarian Journal of Science and Education Policy (BJSEP), Volume 2, Number 2, 2008 A STUDY OF UNDERGRADUATE STU- DENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ABOUT NATURE OF SCIENCE Mehmet KaraKaş Artvin Çoruh University, TURKEY Abstract. Present study examines undergraduate students’ understanding of nature of science (NOS). The researcher analyzes survey data collected from 52 undergraduates (mostly freshman) at a Private Research University in Northeastern U.S., who were enrolled in a Biology course. Present study reveals that there is no signifcant difference of the understanding of NOS among science majors, non- science majors and undecided group of undergraduate students and that they hold contemporary views about some aspects of NOS and traditionalist views about other aspects. This study calls for improving the teaching of NOS in high school and college classrooms. Keywords: nature of science, college science teaching. Introduction Teachings in ways that help students understand nature of science (NOS) has long been central goal of science education (Voelker & Wall, 1973). There has been a long tradition of theoretical writings concerned with es- tablishing the cultural, educational, and scientifc benefts of teaching about NOS, and of infusing epistemological considerations into science programs and curriculum: Schwab (1945, 1958) `s writings in the 1940s and 1950s, the article of Klopfer (1969) and the book of Robinson (1968) in the 1960s, and more recently the paper of Lederman (1992), the thesis by Abd-El-Khal- ick (1998), and a number of others (Lawson, 1999). All these indicate that if