The researchers reasoned that a possible mitigating approach would be to temporally
separate teaching the nature of science content from instruction on how to teach this content to
secondary students. Such a separation would allow time for preservice teachers to elucidate and
articulate their understandings of the nature of science. In addition, this separation would situate any attempts to promote their abilities to teach the nature of science in the realistic context of the secondary classroom. Thus, the intervention in the present investigation was concerned with the sequence, rather than the quality, of the nature of science related activities in the MAT program