Teachers and students struggle with the complexities surrounding the evolution of species and the process of natural selection. This article examines how science teacher candidates (STCs) engage in a clinical simulation that foregrounds two common challenges associated with natural selection--students' understanding of "survival of the…

This naturalistic study integrates specific "question moments" into lesson plans to increase pupils' classroom interactions. A range of tools explored students' ideas by providing students with opportunities to ask and write questions. Their oral and written outcomes provide data on individual and group misunderstandings. Changes to the…

This study stemmed from concerns among researchers that reform efforts grounded in promoting inquiry as the basis for teaching science have not achieved the desired changes in American science classrooms. Many science teachers assume that they are employing inquiry-based strategies when they use cookbook investigations with highly structured…

This research investigates the effect of classroom explicitation of initial conceptions (CEIC) on conceptual change in the context of learning electricity. Eight hundred and seventy five thirteen year-olds were tested in laboratory conditions to see if CEIC is or is not a productive step toward conceptual change. All students experienced a…

Density has been reported as one of the most difficult concepts for secondary school students (e.g. Smith et al. 1997). Discussion about the difficulties of learning this concept has been largely focused on the complexity of the concept itself or student misconceptions. Few, if any, have investigated how the concept of density was constituted in…

The students' performance in various types of problems dealing with the conservation of matter during chemical reactions has been investigated at different levels of schooling. The participants were 499 ninth grade (ages 14, 15 years) and 624 eleventh grade (ages 16, 17 years) Greek students. Data was collected using a written questionnaire…

The starting point of the present research is the following question: since we live in an age that makes increasing use of visual representations of all sorts, is not the visual representation a learner constructs a window into his/her understanding of what is or is not being learned? Following this direction of inquiry, the present preliminary…

The purpose of this study was to rethink the conceptualization of pedagogical content knowledge based on our descriptive research findings and to show how this new conceptualization helps us to understand teachers as professionals. This study was a multiple case study grounded in a social constructivist framework. Data were collected from multiple…

The present study focused on investigating the effectiveness of instruction via newly developed teaching materials based on cooperative learning when compared to a traditional approach, on ninth grade students' understanding of metallic bonding. Fifty-seven ninth grade science students from two science classes in the same high school participated…

In Uganda, curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS has largely depended on public and private media messages about the disease. Media campaigns based on Uganda's cultural norms of communication are metaphorical, analogical and simile-like. The topic of HIV/AIDS has been introduced into the Senior Three (Grade 11) biology curriculum in Uganda. To what…

Considers research that shows very poor student understanding after the teaching of electricity and draws two broad conclusions of central relevance to the teaching of electricity: (1) there is an absence of any systemic consensus as to what models are appropriate for students at different year levels and for different intended learning outcomes;…

Finds that students taught with a constructivist approach had much more increased personal knowledge concerning energy compared to students taught in a traditional manner. (Contains 15 references.) (Author/WRM)

Finds that collaborative group work among pre-service elementary teachers stimulated increased levels of discussion and fostered deeper conceptual understanding than did traditional instructional methods. Discusses implications for science education in Fiji and similar places. (Contains 37 references.) (Author/WRM)