This article reports on quantitative findings from a design-based implementation research (DBIR) project "Carbon TIME" that focused on teaching carbon cycling at multiple scales, from atomic-molecular to global. We report results from a large dataset from diverse schools, including 59,654 student assessments of three-dimensional learning…

Teachers participating in curricular reforms, especially reforms based on constructivism, are expected to bring about change in their teaching approach. This is often a difficult, complex and intensive process, and demands a radical reculturing of the classroom. This is also the case for social constructivist reforms in chemistry education, which…

This article reports the results of an ethnographic research about the multimodal science discourse in a sixth-grade sheltered classroom involving English Language Learners (ELLs) only. Drawing from the perspective of multimodality, this study examines how science learning is constructed in science lectures through multiple semiotic resources,…

This paper deals with the joint construction of knowledge by the teacher and the students in a physics classroom. It is focused on the status of epistemic certainty/uncertainty of knowledge. The same element of knowledge can be introduced as possible and thus uncertain and then evolve towards a status of epistemic certainty; the status of other…

Recently, there has been a push within engineering curricula to adopt more learner-centered pedagogies, such as case-based instruction. Case-based instruction has been hypothesized to make the curriculum more relevant and motivating for students by pushing them to integrate the concepts they have learned with other experiences. The current study…

Reform based curriculum offer a promising avenue to support greater student achievement in science. Yet teachers frequently adapt innovative curriculum when they use them in their own classrooms. In this study, we examine how 19 teachers adapted an inquiry-oriented middle school science curriculum. Specifically, we investigate how teachers'…

Presented is a paradigm for science education research. The paradigm advances the reception learning theory, where regularities to be learned are presented explicitly to the learner. A tool for the study of knowledge production in science education, the Gowin "V," is presented. (RE)

Presents a progress report on some methodological advances made on certain facets of the problem of the learning of a structure of a subject matter. (PEB)

Kindergarten children who had been given cues during instructional sessions on serial ordering performed significantly better on serial ordering posttests than did the control group (no instructional sessions). Author concludes that the acquisition of serial ordering capabilities depends in part on learning and not solely on the development of…

The paper focuses on problems science educators and researchers must face before the advantage of paradigms can be realized. Examples of the role of paradigms in physics research are presented. A critique of paradigm use in physics is presented. Future variations of paradigms for science education are discussed. (Author/RE)

This paper examines how some fundamental mechanisms of nervous system activity can explain human information processing and the acquisition of knowledge and provides additional theoretical support for constructivist applications to science education reform. The implications for scientific epistemology and conceptual change processes in science…

Students given sufficient information to be able to design chemical separations of cations performed better on a post-test, and on a four-month retention test on chemical knowledge and laboratory procedures, than students given a detailed laboratory guide listing the steps to follow. (AL)

A neuromathematical model of information processing applied to science learning is expanded to include two coefficients representing the motivational state of the learner. The inclusion of these coefficients (which are described) permits modeling of the effects of variations in motivation on the rate and amount of information in learning tasks.…

Criticizes weaknesses in the Gagne research model for checking the validity of learning hierarchies, and proposes a new model which is designed to overcome these weaknesses. (JR)

Tested were six levels of a twelve-level hierarchical model for the attainment of concepts leading to the conservation of displacement volume. Presentation was by individual interview using either objects or drawings to present tasks. Results show five of six tested followed anticipated order and that method of presentation showed no significant…