How can educators provide children with a genuine experience of carrying out an extended scientific investigation? And can teachers change the perception of what it means to be a scientist? These were key questions that lay behind "The Human Condition" project, an initiative funded by the Primary Science Teaching Trust to explore a new…

A Victorian government initiative called "The Primary Science Specialists Professional Learning Program" is designed to tackle students' falling interest in science by investing in the building of teacher capacity. The aims of the initiative are: to improve the science knowledge base of all teachers and therefore increase teachers'…

In late 2006, the New Zealand Government embarked on a series of initiatives to explore how the resources and expertise of eight, small, state-owned science research institutes could be combined efficiently to support science teaching in schools. Programmes were developed to enable students and teachers to access and become involved in local…

Evaluated the effectiveness of an in-service science program, designed to introduce the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) to 35 elementary schools, by measuring teachers' (N=168) use of living materials available from the school district's resource supply center. Findings include no significant increase in material usage by workshop…

Summarizes the results from a questionnaire developed to reflect both local concerns and those of national studies in elementary science education in Kansas. The questionnaire included items concerning methods of science instruction, class time spent on science, teacher preparation, approach to metric system, science textual material, and…

Surveyed teachers' perceptions of the SCIS-II elementary science program. Results indicate that grades K-2 teachers rated the program more positively than grades 3-6 teachers. Teachers who rated the program higher perceived fewer barriers to effectively utilizing the program. Teachers rated the program higher for developing social skills and…

For more than a decade the U.S. Office of Education and the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) have collaborated in preparing an annual summary of research in the teaching of science. The present bulletin, under the same collaboration, begins a new series in which each successive issue covers a 2-year period; its…

Beginning in 1950 the National Association for Research in Science Teaching and the U.S. Office of Education collaborated in preparing an annual summary of research in the teaching of science. The present bulletin continues their cooperative effort. This analysis of research in the teaching of science contains reports of published studies…

This publication continues the annual series of bulletins begun in 1950 as a cooperative undertaking between the National Association for Research in Science Teaching and the Office of Education. The present bulletin summarizes and interprets the research in science education from July 1956 to July 1957. The improvement of teaching in science, as…