Science education objectives in Brazil have evolved over time. Initially, the focus was on creating scientifically literate citizens who could relate scientific concepts to their daily lives. In 2017, the São Paulo City Curriculum for Natural Sciences was introduced to teach students scientific literacy through inquiry-based teaching methods. This…

Recently, there have been many calls for an increase in instruction on the nature of science (NOS) in schools (i.e. NRC, 1996; NGSS Lead States, 2013). These calls recognize the importance of this topic at all levels of science education, but there is little guidance in terms of how to address it effectively in curricula. Similarly, there have…

This qualitative study investigated the perceptions of prospective teachers on critical thinking (CT) skills before and after completing the Functional English (FE) course at the Bachelor of Education Honors (B.Ed. Hons) and Associate Degree in Education (ADE). A purposive sampling technique was employed to select 40 participants, with eight…

The instructor-student collaborative partnership has potential to transform education from a traditional, instructor-directed teaching to an active student-centred learning. However, it is not easy to promote the instructor-student collaborative partnership in the Eastern education contexts like China, due to the didactic, instructor-directed,…

This research responds to calls for the decolonization and indigenization of education and higher education spaces and institutions within Canada, specifically within the physical education (PE) and physical education teacher education (PETE) sub-disciplines. Recognizing our own responsibility to attend to decolonization and indigenization, we…

It is almost 20 years since Michael Riley first invited Key Stage 3 history teachers to 'choose and plant' their enquiry questions. Many members of the history education community have taken up that invitation, making use of overarching enquiry questions to structure students' learning. But what is meant by enquiry in this context is sometimes…

The term 'experiment' is used in different ways to mean different things in school science. This study examines the meanings of 'experiment' and how they have changed in the intended chemistry curriculum (ICC) in China since the early 1950s. A mixed methodology was adopted to analyse the 11 ICC documents from a socio-historical perspective. The…

Calls for a decolonized curriculum in South Africa are gaining momentum. Contrary to the school curriculum that privileges knowledge from a western perspective, indigenous knowledge systems appreciate and draw from local content and forms of knowing. A number of studies have expressed the value of indigenous knowledge systems, and the need for…

The primary objective of this study was to determine how experience in learning to teach scientific inquiry using a practical approach affected teacher's attitudes, evaluations of use of inquiry and their actual design of inquiry based instruction. The methodology included the use an approach incorporating inquiry methodology combined with a…

Using the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) data, this study explored the relationship between professional development (PD) and teacher efficacy. In particular, the analysis focused on how 4 aspects of PD (format, content, duration, and quality) are statistically related to the overall as well as the 3 subscales of teacher…

This article describes a general education course offering, Physics and the Arts. During the development of this course, physics and arts faculty collaborated closely. We cover the usual physics phenomena for such a course--light, color, and sound--in addition to gravity, equilibrium, and spacetime. Goals of the course are to increase students'…

The overwhelming response of history teachers to the final version of the National Curriculum (2014) was one of relief that their insistent, penetrating critique of the first draft had been heeded. Jamie Byrom shares that profound sense of relief and celebrates the achievement of the history education community in making its voice heard. However,…

Launched in June 2016, the Smithsonian Learning Lab (SLL) provides access to the digital resources from across the Smithsonian's 19 museums, 9 major research centers, and the National Zoo, to be used as real-world learning experiences. It is designed to aid students in building lasting knowledge and critical skills that take learners from simply…

This study reports on the analysis of South African Life Sciences and Biology textbooks for the inclusion of the nature of science using a conceptual framework developed by Chiappetta, Fillman and Sethna (1991). In particular, we investigated the differences between the representation of the nature of science in Biology textbooks that were written…

This mixed-methods study describes classroom characteristics and student outcomes from university mathematics courses that are based in mathematics departments, targeted to future pre-tertiary teachers, and taught with inquiry-based learning (IBL) approaches. The study focused on three two-term sequences taught at two research universities,…