The teaching of science in K-12 schools has long been criticized as a process that propagates oppression for students who do not conform to entrenched norms of gender, sex, and sexuality. Academic standards, curriculum, and textbooks are rife with rhetoric that reinforces any deviation from cisheterosexuality as aberrant, unusual, or abnormal.…

This study reports on an innovative version of adaptive primary literature (APL) that we call Science Behind the Scenes used during a summer professional development (PD) program. Classroom teachers read and discussed papers from the primary literature, and created translations of these papers relevant to their own classroom needs. We randomly…

This article provides an extended, comprehensive example of how teachers, schools, districts, and external factors (e.g., parental pressure and policy mandates) shape curriculum research in the U.S. It retrospectively examines how three different middle school curriculum units were implemented and scaled-up in a large, diverse school system. The…

In order to compete in a global economy, students are going to need resources and curricula focusing on critical thinking and reasoning in science. Despite awareness for the need for complex reasoning, American students perform poorly relative to peers on international standardized tests measuring complex thinking in science. Research focusing on…

Explores the effects of teaching particulate representation of chemistry on the achievement of high school students in terms of gender interaction. Indicates that females who were taught the particulate representation scored as well as males whereas those who were not taught the particulate representation scored significantly lower than males.…

Reports on the analysis of science curricula carried out across Canada within the framework of the Second International Science Study by: (1) describing the background to the study and the research methodology employed; (2) showing how data were organized; and (3) discussing meanings derived from the data analysis. (JN)

Using Project Synthesis as an example of qualitative synthesis research in science education, discusses the characteristics of such research: using research teams to provide perspectives and viewpoints; using variety of data sources; including a conceptual scheme for accomplishing synthesis; and concluding with, among others, an analysis of…

Investigates secondary school students' concepts of isotopes and allotropes and how the concepts are linked to the Periodic Table of Elements (PTE). Questions senior high school students with multiple choice items and interviews. Shows that students actively tried to make sense of what they had experienced. (KHR)

Investigates how situational knowledge differs across individuals of different competence levels. Analyzes participants' descriptions of physics problem situations. Discusses the relationship between competence and the structure of problem situations, differences between experts and novices, and implications for teaching. (Author/KHR)

Analyzes the participation of secondary school teachers in a U.S. science education curriculum reform effort. Discusses perspectives for the behavior of these teachers relying on knowledge base, practical reasoning and reflective practice, sociocultural views, and a view of teaching as a way of being and teachers as meaning makers. Analyzes two…

Author argues that education has increasingly become dominated by economic interest that can lead not to enhancing equality but to its opposite. Important ideological shifts are occurring in what education is for and in the content and control of curriculum, with an increased emphasis on making education an economic product. Author predicts a…

Reports the teaching behaviors of instructors who (1) willfully and (2) under mandate adopted a new earth science syllabus. After a four year time span had elapsed, both groups exhibited similar behaviors. (CP)

Discussed is the influence of the nature of the environment on the culture of a people and students' concept attainment in science. The influence of the home environment, reasoning abilities, and preference in type of learning are included in the discussion. (KR)

The research reported in this article focuses on teachers' views of participating in curriculum development at the local level. A questionnaire returned by the randomly selected teachers provided data on the types of help desired by teachers involved in curriculum development, sources of help, and curriculum development activities. (SA)