Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is important for teachers' instructional effectiveness. This study investigated the self-reported level of PCK among in-service elementary school science teachers in a municipality in Ghana, examining the overall level of PCK. An In-Service Elementary Science Teachers Self-Reported PCK (IEST-SR-PCK) scale was…

Scientific Practices play a central role in the Next Generation Science Standards, influencing the standards of more than 70% of students in the United States. Therefore, a view of what has been studied about Scientific Practices in Science Education, globally in the past decade is relevant. Thus, 44 articles from international journals in Science…

The purpose of this teacher-practitioner research study was to examine how elementary teacher candidates engaged in sensemaking about the learning process within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and to further examine how they engaged in sensemaking about NGSS teaching and curriculum development. Interviews and course artifacts from 14…

Topics associated with the biological sciences form a significant fraction of the curriculum in science at primary school level in the U.K. In this methodology paper we demonstrate how a wide range of research articles associated with the biological sciences can be disseminated to a primary school audience and how children can carry out…

In previous work, we described how three teachers differentially create opportunities for students to act as epistemic agents and to engage in collective knowledge-building work (Alzen et al., 2020). The descriptive nature of this previous research provided information about what variability can look like in classrooms attempting these…

Student participation in the science practices is more than following directions to conduct pre-determined experiments and analyze data with expected solutions. This requires classroom shifts that increase the epistemic agency of students: increase student involvement and authority in developing science knowledge and practices, rather than the…

This mixed methods study explored how elementary teachers reported using a commercially published instructional unit to plan and deliver science instruction in their elementary classrooms. Of particular focus is what elements of the program teachers eliminated during planning and instruction, what outside materials teachers added to instruction,…

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of Project-Based Learning (PBL) and Flipped Classroom Model (FCM) supported by PBL on sixth grade students' academic achievement, retention of knowledge, and individual innovation competence. A quasi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test control group was used in the study. While the…

Most studies on fidelity focus on adherence (how much it is done), ignoring quality of delivery (how well it is done) as a measure of implementation, and are mainly quantitative in nature. In-depth qualitative studies assessing how much and how well curricula are implemented are scarce. Drawing on data from a qualitative study, this article…

This study explored the influence of using Curriculum-Based Readers Theater (CBRT) on promoting 12 sixth graders' oceanic knowledge and vocabulary learning in an elementary school in Taiwan. Based on the analysis of both quantitative (oceanic knowledge tests and vocabulary knowledge tests) and qualitative data (interviews, videos, and…

In 2014, the latest iteration of the National Curriculum for England came into play. It provided more challenging, but slimmed down, content and concentrated on building essential knowledge and skills. A great start, but the fact remains that teaching today is as complex as ever, equipping youth for a future they do not yet know and for jobs that…

As a myriad of student-centred practices in primary science education have been established as valuable, effective cornerstones of teachers' repertoires, there is now space to further consider student choice in science education. This paper seeks to examine the role of student choice in primary science education by exploring the relationship…

The importance of data literacies and the shortage of research surrounding data science in elementary schools motivated this research-practice partnership (RPP) between researchers and teachers from a STEM elementary school. We used a narrative case study methodology to describe the instructional practices of one music teacher who co-designed a…

The three articles in this dissertation explore how curriculum, instruction, and assessments should align with the vision for science learning outlined in the Framework for K-12 Science Education. Together, the papers demonstrate how curriculum, instruction, and assessment, when mutually supportive of each other, can foster a learning environment…

According to the author, the "Australian Curriculum: Mathematics (AC:M) requires primary school students to measure the attributes of angle, time, temperature, length, area, capacity and mass. This article outlines some misconceptions held by primary school students which appear to stem from them not understanding terminology concerning the…