In this investigation, we examined how youth during learning conversations at an informal science education camp negotiated and authored identities as learners of science. Using identity theory as our analytical lens, we investigated by application of qualitative methodology the socially constructed nature of youth's identities. We focused on the…

The study aimed to extend current research on conditions that better support analogical encoding through mutual alignment. We focused on two variables that have not been examined independently in previous studies: the joint presentations of two cases of a scientific phenomenon and the explicit instructions for comparison. One hundred and…

This study examines the attitudes and the behavioural intentions of typically developing (TD) adolescents towards a hypothetical peer with Asperger syndrome (AS). Participants (N = 179, M age = 13.7 years) viewed two PowerPoint presentations one of a TD male target and one of a male target with AS. The target with AS was introduced either with…

Inquiry skills are an important part of science education standards. There has been particular interest in verifying that these skills can transfer across domains and instructional contexts [4,15,16]. In this paper, we study transfer of inquiry skills, and the effects of prior practice of inquiry skills, using data from over 2000 middle school…

High-quality measures of instructional practice are essential for research and evaluation of innovative instructional policies and programs, as well as for providing feedback to teachers and administrators. In this study, the authors examined whether using anchoring vignettes in web-based surveys improved the validity of teachers' self-assessments…

The present study explored how seventh graders develop their understanding of climate change issues. Particularly, I focused on identifying students' ways of reasoning in evaluating and generating arguments. I also investigated whether students reason differently about climate change issues depending on the relevance of the issues to their daily…

This was a qualitative case study that compared data across six district-level literacy coaches' epistemological and ontological beliefs about how to teach reading. All six coaches were working as a cohort of literacy coaches on the development and implementation of a secondary reading intervention program for seventh-grade struggling readers.…