To make sound science-related decisions in a global society, individuals must possess a science identity, or see themselves as capable of doing and understanding science. Science identity development begins in school-aged years, when multilingual students (MLs) are often marginalised in the classroom due to language challenges and low expectations…

Field trips provide real-world learning opportunities in biology education as they promote knowledge about nature among other things. As biodiversity is declining knowledge of species is important for understanding and appreciating the natural world and its implications. Many field guides are digitally available, but differences from traditional…

This case study examines how material resistance (limitations posed by the physical world) and graph interpretation intersected during a high school biology investigation using digital sensors. We use an extended episode from a small group to illustrate how, in an inquiry-based unit, measuring near the resolution limit of a sensor caused scaling…

The present study investigates how Greek in-service secondary education biology teachers understand the unique features of school biology and physics when considering the biological theoretical edifice and method. Our theoretical framework focuses on important differences that exist between the neo-Darwinian and Newtonian worldviews, while our…

This study aimed to examine the influence of a culturally adapted and context-specific technique of instruction called the culturo-techno-contextual approach (CTCA) on lowering student anxiety and fostering meaningful learning in difficult biology concepts. A quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test non-equivalent group design was used for this…

Quantitative modelling plays an important role as biology increasingly deals with big data sets, relies on modelling to understand system dynamics, makes predictions about impacts of changes, and revises our understanding of system interactions. An assessment of quantitative modelling in biology was administered to students (n = 612) in…

Educational reform priorities such as emphasis on quantitative modelling (QM) have positioned undergraduate biology instructors as designers of QM experiences to engage students in authentic science practices that support the development of data-driven and evidence-based reasoning. Yet, little is known about how biology instructors adapt to the…

Using a qualitative case study method, we examined how students talked, acted, and felt in structured inquiry in attempt to understand how students' epistemic emotions interact with their engagement in practices. Participants were four 5th graders, and data included audio recordings of the students' talk in structured inquiry for learning a…

Photomicrographs are representations of small-scale entities. It has been long argued that students can be weak in perceiving microscopic entities compared to macroscopic entities. However, only a small body of research has investigated how students utilise photomicrographs to make sense of biological phenomena. This study uses a theoretical…

Higher education biology (HEB), a discipline where women undergraduates are numerically overrepresented in most Western universities, has been given little attention in exploring norms of scientific practice from a student perspective. This study brings into focus how biology students negotiate identities in relation to figured worlds of HEB.…

The systems thinking approach requires understanding and interpreting complex systems. This review investigated how the systems thinking approach in science education is positioned in peer-reviewed empirical research articles and to identify the trends used in the current literature. A systematic review of open-access, empirical peer-reviewed…

Knowledge about local species and a positive attitude towards all living organisms are important to motivate the next generations to protect biodiversity. We compared local species identification skills and declared attitude towards invertebrates across genders in Italian and Norwegian students in teacher education. We focused on Norway and Italy…

Diagnosing is an important aspect of teachers' professional competence. To successfully diagnose classroom situations, one has to apply pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in diagnostic activities (DA). Simulated classroom situations with embedded scaffolding can be an effective way of practising skills needed to foster diagnostic competences. In…

This study investigates the alignment between curriculum standards and textbooks, based on a standards-based science education context. The analysis sample includes the High School Biology Curriculum Standards and five editions of biology textbooks in China. Porter's alignment model is used to construct a two-dimensional (content areas and…

This study based on cognitive and social semiotic theories investigates whether the influence of specific features of instructional representation from adolescent textbook images could last until adulthood in certain cultures. Two cultural groups, Indonesian (n = 61) and Taiwanese (n = 60) college students, were recruited from a public Taiwanese…