Science teachers struggle to implement and sustain new curricular ideas from professional development (PD) experiences. These PD opportunities are crucial for enacting real-world changes to teaching practice and address pressing global challenges, such as the teaching and learning of socioscientific topics nested in school communities.…

Improving achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is essential for elevating individual success and solving societal challenges. Yet national and international assessments paint a poor picture of students' STEM competencies (NAEP, 2019; OECD, 2018). An untapped avenue to improve STEM education lies in developing…

Science education literature calls for students' participation in science practices through ongoing collective sensemaking built on coherence from the student perspective. However, few studies systematically consider students' point of view and there is little guidance for how teachers can lead the class to co-construct specified learning goals…

Background: The Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012) and Next Generation Science Standards ([NGSS] NGSS Lead States, 2013) emphasize that all students from the earliest grades onward must have the opportunity to learn and actively participate in authentic science. In K-12 science instruction, this means that students should have the…

We describe the development, design, implementation, and preliminary classroom results of an innovative curriculum, "Focus on Energy," that supports learning about energy in Grades 4-5. The curriculum is grounded in the concepts of science as practice, model-based reasoning, and learning progressions, and builds on students' pre-existing…

In this article, we describe our work with a teacher collaborative focused on enhancing elementary teachers' conceptualization of culture, culturally relevant pedagogy, culturally relevant science pedagogy and the process of developing culturally relevant science curricula. Using culturally relevant pedagogy as inspiration for equitable science…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the potentialities of a learning module, created within an Erasmus+ project, which involved pre-service elementary teachers in a socio-scientific scenario related to green cities. The participants were involved in a panel discussion activity, with the main objective of discussing and reflecting on how to…

The purpose of this teacher-practitioner research study was to examine how elementary teacher candidates engaged in sensemaking about the learning process within the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and to further examine how they engaged in sensemaking about NGSS teaching and curriculum development. Interviews and course artifacts from 14…

The K12 science curriculum in the Philippines uses spiral progression which is a concept of learning approach where students revisit the same topics throughout their school career that increases complexity and reinforcement of previous learning. This cross-sectional study determined the experiences of Filipino prospective science teachers (PSTs)…

The intended curriculum is arguably one of the most important components within any national educational system although those in primary science have not been subject to extensive research scrutiny. Based on reformed primary science curricula from Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan, we compared them on two key features: (1) levels of knowledge…

Science Hunters is a UK outreach project that uses "Minecraft" (a computer game that allows children to build with a wide range of blocks) to engage children with science. Sessions are based on a range of science topics and include practical activities. A new topic, on bioluminescence, was designed in collaboration with staff and…

This article explores the recontextualization of science in the Malawi Standard 6 syllabus for science and technology. It illustrates how relations of power and social control are enacted, using Bernstein's concepts of classification and vertical and horizontal discourse. The syllabus incorporates five 'disciplines': science, technology, health,…

This study provides an example of a systematic professional development project designed to build capacity for the teaching of nature of science and scientific inquiry, while not sacrificing the learning of more traditional science subject matter. Specifically, this project examined the impact of a 5-year professional development project on K-12…

The heterogendered cultural discourse that privileges heterosexuality and normalizes sexual and gender binaries damages the science knowledge and opportunities to engage in science learning that children experience in elementary school science. This article analyzes a typical science lesson on crayfish to show how the heterogendered obsession with…

Introduction: The aim of the study was to examine the effects on Primary School Teacher Candidates of developing and implementing jigsaw technique activities enriched with educational games in Science and Technology Teaching lessons. Methods: In the study, the mixed design was used. The single group pre-test post-test weak experimental pattern…