The importance of understanding and internalizing the scientific method can hardly be exaggerated. Unfortunately, it is all too common for high school--and even university--students to graduate with only a partial or oversimplified understanding of what the scientific method is and how to actually employ it. Help in remedying this situation may…

Representational competence is a primary contributor to student learning in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines and an optimal target for instruction at all educational levels. We describe the design and implementation of a learning activity that uses concrete models to improve students' representational competence and…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of case-based learning instruction over traditionally designed chemistry instruction on eleventh grade students' epistemological beliefs and their attitudes toward chemistry as a school subject. The subjects of this study consisted of 63 eleventh grade students from two intact classes…

This paper aims to evaluate a teaching methodology for the learning of scientific concepts in a primary school context. The focus is on the role played by individual writing, associated to a collective observation of an experiment and a classroom discussion. The hypothesis is that this methodology shows its effect both, on the scientific quality…

Simple harmonic motion (SHM) is an important topic for physics or science students and has wide applications all over the world. Computer simulations are applications of special interest in physics teaching because they support powerful modeling environments involving physics concepts. This article is aimed to compare the effect of…

This study involved the evaluation of the efficacy of a planned instructional program to facilitate understanding of the macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic representational systems when describing and explaining chemical reactions by sixty-five Grade 9 students in a Singapore secondary school. A two-tier multiple-choice diagnostic instrument…

This study characterizes the impact of an inquiry-based learning (IBL) module versus a traditionally structured laboratory exercise. Laboratory sections were randomized into experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught using IBL pedagogical techniques and included manipulation of large-scale data-sets, use of multiple…

This study investigated the impact of outdoor educational activities on pupils' knowledge of some environmental issues and problems. A pretest, posttest, control group, quasi-experimental design was adopted for the study. Four hundred and eighty primary 5 pupils from 12 randomly selected primary schools in Ibadan, Nigeria, constituted the subjects…

This article presents a systematic review of research on the achievement outcomes of all types of approaches to teaching science in elementary schools. Study inclusion criteria included use of randomized or matched control groups, a study duration of at least 4 weeks, and use of achievement measures independent of the experimental treatment. A…

In this study, the effect of animation enhanced conceptual change texts (CCT-CA) on grade 6 students' understanding of the particulate nature of matter (PNM) and transformation during the phase changes was investigated. A quasi-experimental design and one control group (CG, N = 25) and one experimental group (EG, N = 26) were used. While the…

The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of the first two group applications of the project named "We are Learning about the Soil with Tipitop and His Friends" within the scope of the project group activities of The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) "Schools of Nature and…

In the last three decades, the constructivist approach has been the dominant ideology in the field of educational research. The aim of this study is to explore the effect of constructivist science teaching on the students' understanding about matter, and to compare the effectiveness of a constructivist approach over traditional teaching methods.…

The objective of the study was to experience the effectiveness of super-learning technique of teaching at elementary level. The study was conducted with 8th grade students at a public sector school. Pre-test and post-test control group designs were used. Experimental and control groups were formed randomly, the experimental group (N = 62),…

We report on the advantage of integrating teaching of biology and physics in the 7th grade as compared to the teaching physics and biology as discrete units. Experimental group (EG) had a lesson integrating knowledge of physics and biology, while control group (CG) had discrete lessons in physics and biology, referring each to their specific…

This study investigated the comprehension and effectiveness of teaching formal, probabilistic decision-making skills to middle school students. Two specific objectives were to determine (1) if middle school students can comprehend a probabilistic decision-making approach, and (2) if exposure to the modeling approaches improves middle school…