Green School intend to increase student connection to the environment, and have the potential to increase achievement through opportunities for hands-on science learning. This study utilizes publicly available data on all public schools in Maryland to examine the extent to which the Green School designation relates to changes in science…

In this article, the author describes her early fascination with the natural world, and how this directed her through school and university into a scientific career. She talks about how she combined her previous experiences into one fabulous job, running the educational outreach for a pharmaceutical company, before the teaching itch led her to…

Nebraska is committed to pursuing a new vision for science education based on "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC, 2012), that advocates for rigorous, high-quality science education for all students. Following an ambitious four year timeline, Nebraska is working to develop new assessments aligned to and designed for these…

There is widespread agreement that an adequate understanding of the nature of science (NOS) is a critical component of scientific literacy and a major goal in science education. However, we still do not know many specific details regarding how students and teachers learn particular aspects of NOS and what are the most important feature traits of…

This study explored the professional responsibilities of district science coordinators, their professional development (PD) experiences, the relationship between their role, responsibilities, district context, and background, and barriers encountered in their work. A national sample (n = 122) of self-identified science coordinators completed a…

The national efforts underway to include engineering in K-12 science education present a variety of new challenges, including how to prepare teachers to teach a new discipline. In this paper, we focus on elementary teachers and how they enter into "responsive teaching," in which they closely attend and meaningfully respond to students'…

The present research explores the perception of students on their use of the SPARK Science Learning System device and sensors in their science classes as they study the K to 12 science modules in the Philippines. Two groups of students were assigned to be the experimental and the control group of the study. The experimental group was exposed to…

Thinking and other non-cognitive skills are becoming more important because the information explosion means less reliance on memorising facts and more on the ability to understand, analyse, apply, evaluate and create. In addition, many learners entering schools today will work in job categories not yet imagined; therefore a teaching focus on fact…

NGSS Early Implementers is a four-year initiative created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Designed for professional developers and administrators, this report describes 10 tools and processes that are…

Promoting positive attitudes about science among teachers has important implications for teachers' classroom practice and for their relationship to science as a discipline. In this paper, we report positive shifts in teachers' attitudes about science, as measured by the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science (CLASS) survey, over the course of…

Science teaching and learning in the United States are at a pivotal point. "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC 2012b) and the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS"; NGSS Lead States 2013) shift science educators' focus from simply teaching science ideas to helping students figure out phenomena and…

We investigated teacher learning within a professional development (PD) workshop series on computational thinking (CT) for elementary-level mentor teachers. The purpose of the PD was to prepare mentor teachers to support preservice teachers in integrating CT into their classroom practice, toward the broader goal of advancing CT for all in the…

Findings from assessments of fourth-grade science have indicated that students in Korea scored higher than international averages. Research results have also shown that attitudes toward science were related to achievement outcomes for Korean students. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between confidence in science and…

Scientific modeling has been advocated as one of the core practices in recent science education policy initiatives. In modeling-based instruction (MBI), students use, construct, and revise models to gain scientific knowledge and inquiry skills. Oftentimes, the benefits of MBI have been documented using assessments targeting students' conceptual…

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the roles that perceived teacher affective support (PTAS), perceived teacher mastery goal orientation (PTMGO), academic emotions, self-efficacy and behavioural engagement play on students' science achievement in elementary school science classrooms. The potential relations of different levels of…