In this study, the impact of the Environmental and Climate Change Education program on the perceptions of 4th-grade students regarding environmental issues, climate change, and sustainability was investigated. The study group consisted of 22 (12 boys, 10 girls) 4th-grade students aged between 9-10 years, who were all studying in the same class at…

Partnerships between schools and out-of-school organizations (museums, zoos, nature centers, etc.) have been shown to improve the educational experiences for both students and teachers. In this article, we report on the experiences we have documented as a nature center through our active involvement in school partnerships. Our partnerships with…

This paper explores enabling conditions for scaling high-quality project-based learning (PBL) to understand factors that influence how PBL spreads, whether and how it can be sustained and the extent to which it informs meaningful change in schools. We report on a year-long collaboration across three research projects. Each project team analyzed…

At the basic education level, content related to disasters is included in the scope of courses such as Life Sciences, Science, and Social Studies. Studies reveal that teachers and pre-service teachers who conduct these courses are not equipped with the necessary technological and pedagogical skills. It is predicted that integrating disasters and…

Our goal in this article is to provide research-based strategies for embedding Nature of Science (NOS) into science instruction at the elementary level. We thus intend to aid researchers, professional developers, and teachers in noting that not only is it important and possible to teach NOS at the elementary levels, but also that elementary…

Incorporating computational thinking (CT) ideas into core subjects, such as mathematics and science, is one way of bringing early computer science (CS) education into elementary school. Minimal research has explored how teachers can translate their knowledge of CT into practice to create opportunities for their students to engage in CT during…

The current research is based on the phenomenological-qualitative paradigm. The goal was to examine the significant experiences, attitudes, and pedagogical practices of 17 Israeli student teachers in the science-teaching track regarding the use of project-based learning (PBL) as a pedagogical method, which they implemented in elementary schools…

This article presents the evaluation of a two-year action research project in biology and mathematics teaching involving a primary school and a university in Sweden. The aim of the study was to contribute knowledge about a school-university intersection as a professional learning arena. The teachers' conceptions about the project implementation,…

Through a randomized controlled trial, this mixed-methods study evaluated changes in elementary science teachers' understandings, confidence, and classroom implementation of problem-based learning (PBL), inquiry, and nature of science (NOS) instruction following participation in a professional development (PD) as well as the components of the PD…

Aaron Sebens and his fourth grade students received this congratulatory tweet from the White House as a response to the solar-powered classroom that they created in 10 weeks. The process--defining the goals, raising funds, construction, and implementation--involved many subject areas: reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. This…

Purpose: This paper is second of seven in this volume elaborating different approaches to quality improvement in education. It delineates a methodology called design-based implementation research (DBIR). The approach used in this paper is aimed at iteratively improving the quality of classroom teaching and learning practices in defined problem…

One plausible method for ensuring students are truly understanding science fundamentals beyond being actively and intellectually engaged is to consider how informal learning environments can provide meaningful relevancy by connecting to real-world instances. Transforming traditional science centers into informal learning centers will ensure that…

The implementation of formative assessment strategies is challenging for teachers. We evaluated teachers' implementation fidelity of a curriculum-embedded formative assessment programme for primary school science education, investigating both material-supported, direct application and subsequent transfer. Furthermore, the relationship between…

In the present study we present a didactic method to help children aged 11 and 12 learn science in such a way as to enable a dynamic interaction between domain general strategies and the development of conceptual knowledge, whilst each type of scientific process has been considered (forming of hypotheses, experimenting and evaluating). We have…

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the in-service science teachers' (IST) perceptions and practices about curriculum and integration of the history of science (HOS) and the nature of science (NOS) affect their science courses. For this aim, how ISTs integrated the NOS and HOS in their elementary science courses for understanding of…