Students need to reflect on the practice of science to fully understand the nature of science (NOS), which is an important component of scientific literacy. In this paper, the authors describe how to implement an explicit and reflective pedagogy in college science laboratories and share examples from their implementation in a multiple-section…

Textuality is often thought of in linguistic terms; for instance, the talk and writing that circulate in the classroom. In this paper I take a multimodal perspective on textuality and context. I draw on illustrative examples from school Science and English to examine how image, colour, gesture, gaze, posture and movement--as well as writing and…

The Learning Environmental Inventory is promoted as a tool that has been used extensively to ascertain differences in class environment and how student environment perceptions relate to achievement and attitude. It's felt that teachers can improve their classrooms through careful use of the instrument and application of knowledge gained. (MP)

A call is made for the integration of science and social studies education in elementary and secondary schools. Examples are given of situations where instruction has been integrated over the two areas. It is felt instruction can be provided which focuses on problem solving and decision making. (MP)

The author presents an analysis of alternative views about why students should learn science, shares some anecdotal impressions about the heuristic potential of the concept "curriculum emphases" in a practical setting, and examines some problems related to teaching science to early adolescents. (Author/PB)

The work we report in this special issue attempted to exploit the power of technology and cognitive theory to help make conceptual systems taught in large college courses truly useful in students' future lives. Facing evidence that traditional instructional models have not succeeded in this regard, we sought feasible course designs and…