The domains represented in Fig. 1 and unpacked in the previous section are meant to be
necessary and sufficient knowledge domains for enabling science teachers to successfully
engage in teaching with and about NOS. Nonetheless, as noted above, the translation of
teachers’ knowledge into instructional practice remains a mediated affair (Lederman
1999). Thus, while the outlined knowledge domains are necessary and sufficient to enable
teaching with and about NOS, the actual enactment of commensurate instructional practices
will hinge on a number of mediating factors. Chief among these factors are curricular
mandates and priorities, and the extent to which learning outcomes related to developing
student NOS understandings are valued curricular outcomes, or stand a chance to receive
serious attention when teachers are overwhelmed with pressures to cover extensive science
content related outcomes. Another set of factors stems from the value that teachers place
on the importance of their students learning about NOS, and their perceptions of student
abilities and motivation for learning about NOS (e.g., Abd-El-Khalick et al. 1998; Aguirre
et al. 1990; Brickhouse 1989; Lederman et al. 2001). These aforementioned factors surely
are interdependent, but are distinct in substantial ways from the knowledge domains for
teaching with and about NOS. While the enactment of teaching with and about NOS might
be dependent on these mediating factors, curricular mandates and teacher beliefs in the
importance of student learning about NOS would not result in effective NOS instructional
enactments.