Large numbers of U.S. students lack proficiency in science, and students from different racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups show disparities in science achievement. Science knowledge and skills are important for both academic and workplace success, and a variety of interventions have been developed to improve student achievement in science.…

Large numbers of U.S. students lack proficiency in science, and students from different racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups show disparities in science achievement. Science knowledge and skills are important for both academic and workplace success, and a variety of interventions have been developed to improve student achievement in science.…

Large numbers of U.S. students lack proficiency in science, and students from different ethnic and socioeconomic groups show disparities in science achievement. Science knowledge and skills are important for both academic and workplace success, and a variety of interventions have been developed to improve student achievement in science. The…

This chapter investigates the impact and relative advantages of two engagement models for delivering science-specific PD: school-led partnerships and external-led PD delivered by STEM experts. Traditionally professional development (PD) led by professional education experts has been used to improve the quality of science teaching and learning in…

Bristol ChemLabS, the UK's Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in practical chemistry, delivers numerous outreach activity days per year for thousands of primary school pupils annually. These mainly comprise demonstration assemblies and hands on workshops for pupils in the main. The activities support the UK's Key Stage 2 science…

The Quality Elementary Science Teaching (QuEST) program is designed to deliver high-quality professional development (PD) in science content to elementary school teachers. QuEST includes both content and pedagogical instruction combined with a controlled teaching experience situated within a larger professional development context. The design of…

In this paper there is a critical overview of the role of analogies as tools for meaning making in science education, their advantages and disadvantages. Two empirical studies on the use of analogies in primary classrooms are discussed and analysed. In the first study, the "string circuit" analogy was used in the teaching of electric circuits with…

Which science programs have been proven to help elementary students to succeed? To find out, this review summarizes evidence on three types of programs designed to improve the science achievement of students in grades K-6: (1) Inquiry-oriented programs without science kits, such as Increasing Conceptual Challenge, Science IDEAS, and Collaborative…

This paper explores one district's attempt to implement a blended science and English Language Development (ELD) elementary program, designed to provide English language learners opportunities to develop proficiency in English through participation in inquiry-based science. This process resulted in blended program that utilized a combined…

Establishing literacy in science is often linked to building knowledge about the Nature of Science (NOS). This paper describes and evaluates an inservice program designed to build elementary teachers' understanding of NOS and an awareness of how NOS impacts science classroom instruction. Data sources consisted of surveys, action research plan…

This article reports on issues arising from the external evaluation of a teacher development project--the Active Learning in Primary Science (ALPS) project--undertaken in eight Bristol (UK) primary schools during 2007. The ALPS project aimed to raise pupil attainment in science by developing participating teachers' skills, knowledge and enthusiasm…

This pilot study investigated the effect of community-based service learning on the self-efficacy beliefs of preservice elementary teachers in regards to equitable science teaching and learning. Using the Self-Efficacy Beliefs About Equitable Science Teaching (SEBEST) instrument (Ritter, Boone, & Rubba, 2001), pre- and posttest data from 32…

This study examined the impact of a recently revised science course that engaged preservice teachers in a scaffolded, student-directed inquiry unit on local streams. Upon the completion of the inquiry project, the teacher candidates in the stream study classes demonstrated significantly greater improvement in the personal science teaching efficacy…

Researchers have conducted various studies on applying wireless communication and ubiquitous computing technologies to education, so that the technologies can provide learners and educators with more active and adaptive support. This study proposes a Ubiquitous Performance-support System (UPSS) that can facilitate the seamless use of powerful new…

The purposes of this study were to examine initial content knowledge about properties of air by three cohorts of undergraduate and master's students studying elementary education and to determine forms of reasoning used to explain air phenomena and the effect of an intervention on content knowledge. Subjects were assessed using a 14-question test…