School principals play a pivotal role in directing students' classroom educational experiences. However, in the USA, many elementary principals (serving youth 5-12 years old) have had few formal experiences with professional development or coursework that centers on current standards for quality science instruction as guided by the "Framework…

Primary school topics involving abstract concepts are challenging to teach. Electric circuits can be simply constructed but complex to explain. New approaches in teaching students for understanding are needed to advance practice in primary science. This paper combines the strengths of multimodality research perspectives with variation theory to…

This study examined the preferences for professional development (PD) in primary (elementary) science among pre-service teachers (PSTs) and in-service teachers (ISTs). The contribution of the study is its focus on quantifying the relative importance of factors that were significant for teachers by using best-worst scaling methodology. Rather than…

The research compares teachers' and their pupils' performance on plant nutrition. The misconceptions of 89 primary school children from one state school have been compared with those of their four teachers. A questionnaire and a drawing task were used for data collection. The results evidence that children and teachers have serious shortcomings…

This paper argues that meaning-making with multimodal representations in science learning is always contextualized within a genre and, conversely, what constitutes an ongoing genre also depends on a multimodal coordination of speech, gesture, diagrams, symbols, and material objects. In social semiotics, a genre is a culturally evolved way of doing…

This study aimed to examine the integration of four elementary science teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) components during emergency remote teaching. Data sources included teaching video recordings and stimulated interviews conducted after analyzing the teachers' teaching videos. The data were analyzed by identifying…

This work uses new materialist perspectives (Barad 2007; Lenz Taguchi 2014; Rautio in "Children's Geographies," 11(4), 394-408, 2013) to examine an exploration of concepts as agents and the question how intra-action of human and non-human bodies lead to the investigation of scientific concepts, relying on an article by de Freitas and…

Solutions to global issues demand the involvement of scientists, yet concern exists about retention rates in science as students pass through school into University. Young children are curious about science, yet are considered incapable of grappling with abstract and microscopic concepts such as atoms, sub-atomic particles, molecules and DNA.…

The prevailing portrayal of science and scientists within the public domain is a multifaceted mix of conventional stereotypes. Our study investigates these perceptions among Mexican children, analyzing 816 drawings and descriptions collected from fourth to seventh graders in rural and urban schools in Northwestern Mexico. Drawings were analyzed…

Stagnating test scores, underwhelming student scientific literacy and declines in post-compulsory science enrolment are major issues in Australian science education. Universities are central in improving science education, as a relatively small group of 33 higher education providers can directly influence generations of primary teachers…

There is increasing interest in early childhood science education and a corresponding increase in research in this area. Studies have shown that in some countries the teaching of science in the early years remains low. These studies show that science pedagogy in the early years needs attention, despite the myriad opportunities afforded for the…

This study examined the impact of a project-based learning module on young children's scientific practices in urban and Indigenous areas. The module was developed by drawing upon early science standards and research on scientific practices and project-based teaching approaches. Ninety-eight children from northern Taiwan participated. Their average…

Play-based approaches to science learning allow children to meaningfully draw on their everyday experiences and activities as they explore science concepts in context. Acknowledging the crucial role of the teacher in facilitating science learning through play, the purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how teacher-guided play, in…

This article reports on the effect of using a diagram to develop primary students' conceptual understanding about electric circuits. Diagrammatic representations of electric circuits are used for teaching and assessment despite the absence of research on their pedagogical effectiveness with young learners. Individual interviews were used to…

Educators expect that students be able to make informed decisions about science-related problems in their everyday lives. Engaging science in such problems often entails evaluating available evidence for given arguments. This study explores how students use inscriptions as evidence to argue about socioscientific issues. Fifth- and sixth-grade…