The second assumption underlying the research reviewed thus far is closely related
to the first. If it is assumed that teachers’ conceptions of science affect students’
conceptions, some method of influence must exist; naturally the influence
must be mediated by teacher behaviors and classroom ecology. In short, initial research
concerned with teachers’ and students’ conceptions of NOS assumed that a
teacher’s behavior and the classroom environment are necessarily and directly influenced
by the teacher’s conception of NOS. Although this assumption was explicitly
stated by many, including Hurd (1969) and Robinson (1969), it remained an
untested assumption into the early 1980s.