The importance of models and modeling in science education is well-recognized, yet there exists significant polysemy among these terms within the literature. This ambiguity often leads to confusion, particularly regarding whether modeling represents an expected student performance, an instructional strategy to promote such performance, or both.…

Recent instructional reforms in science education aim to change the way students engage in learning in the discipline, as they describe that students are to engage with disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and the practices of science to make sense of phenomena (NRC, 2012). For such sensemaking to become a reality, there is a need to…

One reason for the widespread use of the energy concept across the sciences is that energy analysis can be used to interpret the behavior of systems even if one does not know the particular mechanisms that underlie the observed behavior. By providing an approach to interpreting unfamiliar phenomena, energy provides a lens on phenomena that can set…

Teachers' instructional practices are critical for guiding students' engagement in scientific practices within the classroom knowledge building community. In this study, we seek to understand how teachers' instructional supports of epistemic aspects involved in scientific modeling may influence students' meaningful engagement in the practice. In…

Drawing from intersectional feminist scholarship, we communicate how Salina and Marelis, both women of color, teach science for social justice in the face of significant institutional challenges. Theorizing from their experiences and practices, we articulate a feminist praxis for school science, which includes (1) building community and…

Equity-focused calls for elementary education reform recognize the importance of student and teacher translanguaging, yet nuances of how this process unfolds in early childhood science is an underexplored area. This study examines young plurilingual children's participation in science investigations, with a view toward understanding how open-ended…

Science teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning are a vital component of teachers' professional competence and are often assumed to impact classroom practice. To date, these beliefs have been predominantly investigated regarding teaching and learning in general or for a particular science subject (e.g., physics). It remains to be determined…

National governments are concerned about the disconnection of young people from science, which hampers the development of a scientifically literate society promoting sustainable development, wellbeing, equity, and a green economy. Introduced in 2015 alongside Agenda 2030, the "open schooling" approach aims at enhancing students' science…

The Next Generation Science Standards states that "science begins with a question." (NGSS Lead States [2013] "Next generation science standards: For states, by states". Washington, DC: National Academies Press). Yet scientific inquiry among students and scientists alike often begins without a clear question. In this article, we…

This study explores the process of teacher scaffolding student engagement in epistemic tools from the critical sensemaking perspective. Epistemic tools are contextual artifacts manipulated to investigate and evaluate ideas to construct knowledge within the constraints of a disciplines' representational means. The main sources of our data are ~50…

This study uses a mixed method sequential exploratory design to examine motivational and contextual influences on boys' and girls' engagement in math and science, paying particular attention to similarities and differences in the patterns by gender. First, interviews were conducted with 38 middle and high school students who varied in their level…

Instructional tasks are key features of classroom practice, but little is known about how different components of tasks--such as selecting or designing tasks for a lesson, launching, and implementing them with students--shape the conditions for students' intellectual engagement in science classrooms. Employing a qualitative multiple case study…

This paper explores how participating in a program spanning an informal science institution and multiple school sites engaged youth with science in a different way. In particular, teens in the program selected and researched science topics of personal interest, and then authored, revised, and published science news stories about those topics in an…

Orchestrating inquiry-based science learning in the classroom is a complex undertaking. It requires fitting the culture of the classroom with the teacher's teaching and inquiry practices. To understand the interactions between these variables in relation to student learning, we conducted an investigation in two different classroom settings to…

Multiple illustrative case studies were used to investigate guided inquiry methods and the benefits of traditional science notebooks versus electronic science notebooks for students with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. Results indicated students successfully acquired science content and increased motivation through science inquiry…