In this article, we tackle the phenomenon of what seems to be a misunderstanding between science education theory and philosophy of science--one which does not seem to have received any attention in the literature. While there seems to be a consensus within the realm of science education on limiting or altogether denying the explanatory role of…

Electricity and magnetism are fundamentally interconnected, as represented by the symmetry in Maxwell's equations. Much of the research on Gauss's and Ampere's laws has focused on their application in calculating electric or magnetic fields. However, there remains a significant gap in the literature in exploring these laws in a broader…

Current science education reform efforts have identified sensemaking as an important goal of science education, and science education researchers have studied what constitutes the sensemaking process in the science classroom. Because the studies of sensemaking are loosely linked to those of scientific reasoning, however, they have provided little…

We use a validated conceptual multiple-choice survey instrument focusing on thermodynamic processes and the first and second laws of thermodynamics at the level of introductory physics to investigate the problem-property dependence of introductory and advanced student responses to introductory thermodynamics problems after traditional…

The rapid development of technology in the Industrial Revolution 4.0 has made it necessary for students to master technology and have data literacy and technology literacy skills. However, initial studies show that the data and technology literacy of grade XI high school students is still relatively low. This study aimed to investigate the…

The development of explanations for scientific phenomena is crucial in science assessment. However, the scoring of students' written explanations is a challenging and resource-intensive process. Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated the potential to address these challenges, particularly when the explanations are written in English, an…

Despite the intrinsic interdisciplinary nature of STEM, teaching interdisciplinarity in the classroom is difficult and students struggle to find the applicability of concepts and skills in different scientific disciplines. In this work we propose a micro-credential "badge" system called Demonstrated Understanding of Core Knowledge (DUCK)…

Molecular Cell Biology (MCB) should be taught according to the scientific practices, avoiding cumulative and memory knowledge construction, but favoring scientific thinking. A way to achieve this goal is to apply activities involving scientific news, which construct knowledge through significant learning and the development of critical thinking.…

Peer-led team learning is a socially mediated pedagogy where trained peer leaders, students who have completed a course, return to lead students in groups within a targeted course. The effect of peer-led team learning to improve student success in chemistry has been extensively documented but it is unclear if it is just as effective at…

Physics problem-solving ability is among the crucial skills physics students require as it enhances their conceptual understanding and develops their abilities for real-world problem-solving. This study employed a descriptive design to investigate the physics problem-solving skills of Senior-Five physics students from Rwandan secondary schools.…

We investigated the effect of short-term teaching (3 weeks) using image analysis on gymnasium/secondary school students' (ISCED3A) skills (science process skills, SPS) and knowledge using Fiji (ImageJ) software. The theoretical teaching was combined with IT-based education (measurement of the area or signal intensity on photos from scientific…

Chemical thinking has been widely recognized as a core competence that students develop in chemistry education. This study examined the distribution and representation forms of chemical thinking in the five Chinese high school chemistry textbooks aligned with the new national standards in Mainland China. We employed the framework of essential…

This paper describes the design and evaluation of the Organic chemistry Representational Competence Assessment (ORCA). Grounded in Kozma and Russell's representational competence framework, the ORCA measures the learner's ability to "interpret," "translate," and "use" six commonly used representations of molecular…

Background/purpose: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a computerized instructional module based on artificial intelligence in acquiring scientific concepts and developing critical thinking among seventh-grade female students. Materials/methods: To achieve the study's objectives, an AI-based computerized instructional module was…

Elementary students learn best when they make observations about perplexing natural phenomena, ask questions about what they observed, and pursue answers to their own questions through engagement in science practice. However, facilitating such learning experiences can be challenging for novice instructors. In this unit, pre-service elementary…