The construct of philosophical competence of biology teachers employed here draws on Weinert’s (2001) definition of competence. According to this definition competence includes „the abilities and capabilities which are inherent to individuals or can be learned (...) as well as motivational, volitional and social attitudes and abilities.“ This concept thus embraces not only the question what factual knowledge and relevant abilities a biology teacher should acquire in the course of his or her education but also which attitude he or she should develop in order to be able to promote critical-constructive knowledge of biology. In keeping with the general model of professional decision making and responsibility described by Baumert & Kunert (2006) four dimensions of competence in philosophy of science are distinguished: 1) the dimension of „professional knowledge,” including basic knowledge in philosophy of biology; 2) the dimension „convictions and values,“ which addresses attitudes and aims of education and classes with respect to philosophy of science; 3) „motivational orientation,“ which refers to an openness for critical reflection and for philosophizing in science classes; and 4) the dimension „self-regulating ability“ of teachers, which refers to their ability and disposition towards reflecting upon their own roles and responsibilities as experts and multipliers. The central focus of this study is the influence of socialisation in higher education on the readiness of biology teachers to deal with philosophical questions in their classes, as demanded in the programmatic requirements of fields of interest such as scientific literacy, the nature of science or public understanding of science. In keeping with ideas currently discussed in social psychology, unconscious information processing seems to have a far greater influence on professional teachers’ behaviour than commonly thought in educational training institutions. The daily professional routine of teachers requires fast, appropriate and target-orientated behaviour (Bromme 1992; Torff & Sternberg 2001). How closely subject area matter and other activities are connected in a person’s memory also determines how fast they come to one's mind spontaneously. Dual-process models permit a more in depth understanding of the meaning of internalized convictions for the emergence of intuitive appraisals of a matter as well as the interests and behavioural interests that ensue (Chaiken & Trope 1999). These theoretical considerations may be valuable for planning university courses. The discipline in which a student receives his or her training influenced the way teacher think about the nature of science and the goals of science education.

In episodic interviews (Flick 1996) data were collected on the educational biographies and attitudes of biology teachers towards the significance of reflections on the philosophy of bioscience and science studies during their academic education and in their current classes. This form of a thematically structured and narrative interview is organised around a guideline designed to address the relationship between professional development and conceptions of bioscience and science education. The contents of these interviews were analysed with the goal of specifying the construct „philosophical competence“ in light of the reconstruction of boosting and blocking influences on the acquisition of this competence in the course of the professional career of biology teachers. Altogether 28 interviews were analysed wit the help of the computer program MaxQDA.

The results reflect the institutionalized division of labour that exists in academia between biological discourse on the one hand and socioscientific or philosophical accounts of biology on the other. It appears problematic that the study of biology concentrates solely on the transfer of methods and biological knowledge, while reflections on the philosophy of science and science studies are mainly dealt with outside of the biology curriculum. This can lead to a marginalization of the philosophy of bioscience in science education. Moreover, it probably encourages biology teachers to delegate the responsibility for dealing with challenging controversies to other subject areas. In general a conscious reflection of one’s own role and responsibility with respect to the development of biology and its cultural influences is barely formed during the academic phase of biology teacher education.