Students' lack of interest in chemistry becomes a significant issue in chemistry learning. This may be caused by the negative perception of students about their difficulties in learning chemistry. This study aims to explore views and causes of difficulties in learning chemistry from the perspective of secondary school students. This research was…

In this study that aims to motivate struggling students and helping them to improve their learning achievement, we designed and tested an E7-based approach in a virtual laboratory environment. We rely on cognitive load theory and self-determination theory to enable our approach to meet the cognitive and noncognitive needs of struggling students.…

Students in upper secondary education encounter difficulties in applying mathematics in physics. To improve our understanding of these difficulties, we examined symbol sense behavior of six grade 10 physics students solving algebraic physic problems. Our data confirmed that students did indeed struggle to apply algebra to physics, mainly because…

teachers, particularly in providing these students the core competencies to be more globally competitive and functionality literate in science and in biological disciplines in particular. The purpose of this study was to determine the least mastered competencies of 10 graders in different biology competencies they learned from grade 7 to grade 10.…

The study investigates differentiated teaching practices of practical work in distinct social contexts and with different experienced teachers, at the level of the Portuguese high school science education. Four teaching practices were analysed in terms of the level of complexity of both scientific knowledge and cognitive skills and in terms of…

One popular advanced technology nowadays is smartphone. Smartphones allow various functions beyond the traditional function of mobile phones as communication devices. The technology in smartphones has potential applications in many areas including education. In this study, we report our research which aims to: (1) produce a smartphone app as media…

This study tests a hypothesized learning progression for the concept of energy. It looks at 14 specific ideas under the categories of (i) Energy Forms and Transformations; (ii) Energy Transfer; (iii) Energy Dissipation and Degradation; and (iv) Energy Conservation. It then examines students' growth of understanding within each of these ideas at…

This paper has proposed to investigate the interest in students towards physics among other science subjects. The investigation was carried out with 490 samples of grade ten students in Wolaita Soddo town governmental schools. Thus, overall result indicates that the interest in students towards physics is low and students hate to learn physics in…

This article describes revisions to four of the eight constructs of the Duncan molecular genetics learning progression [Duncan, Rogat, & Yarden, (2009)]. As learning progressions remain hypothetical models until validated by multiple rounds of empirical studies, these revisions are an important step toward validating the progression. Our…

During the last 10 years, outreach science laboratories have become increasingly popular due to resource and time limitations in schools. Outreach laboratories offer hands-on projects in a situated and authentic learning setting, thereby promoting the development of students' scientific literacy. However, students' cognitive achievement within…

Given the rapid development of modern biotechnology, attention to socioscientific issues in educational contexts is crucially important to support students in becoming responsible citizens. The authors' research focused on the impact of discussing socioscientific issues during biology lessons under 3 different treatments (teacher guided, student…

Helping students develop a sound understanding of scientific concepts can be a major challenge. Lately, learning progressions have received increasing attention as a means to support students in developing understanding of core scientific concepts. At the center of a learning progression is a sequence of developmental levels reflecting an…

This exploratory study applied a proposed force and motion learning progression (LP) to high-school and university students and to content involving both one- and two-dimensional force and motion situations. The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) was adapted, based on a previous content analysis and coding of the questions in the FCI in terms of the…

Current reforms in the education policy of various countries are intended to produce a paradigm shift in the educational system towards an outcome orientation. After implementing educational standards as normative objectives, the development of test procedures that adequately reflect these targets and standards is a central problem. This paper…

Using emergent motivation theory, this study analyzes the relationships between high school students' perceptions of their reading skills, task challenge, and personal control over assigned reading activities and their reading engagement (i.e., interest, enjoyment, and concentration) during science instruction. The study also examines how…