The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) delineate three interrelated dimensions that describe what students should know and how they should engage in science learning. These present significant challenges for assessment because traditional assessments may not be able to capture the ways in which students engage with content. Science…

Students' understanding of the electronic structure of the atom has been investigated by many authors. This study outlines students' conceptual and representational understanding of quantum concepts explored in lower and upper level chemistry courses, in three different chemistry majors, identifying learning obstacles and monitoring student…

The study is aimed to develop the open innovation model of student's research activities based on the adaptation of modern scientific achievements in the context of transition to sustainable development of the education system. It advances a general approach to the design of the structure and implementation of main components of hybrid intelligent…

Understanding scientific models and practicing scientific modeling have been emphasized and advocated in science learning. Although teachers have been perceived as shaping their students' understanding of the nature of science, they have been recognized for their lack of understanding of scientific models. This study explores middle school science…

This study tests the influence of a video-based, analysis-of-practice professional development (PD) program on upper-elementary teachers' science content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and teaching practice and on their students' achievement. Using a cluster-randomized experimental design, the study compares the outcomes for teachers in…

This study was conducted in a large-scale environmental literacy project. In the project, we developed a Learning Progression Framework (LPF) for matter and energy in social-ecological systems; the LPF contains four achievement levels. Based on the LPF, we designed a Plant Unit to help Levels 2 and 3 students advance to Level 4 of the LPF. In the…

Learning progressions (LPs) are hypothetical models of how learning in a domain develops over time with appropriate instruction. In the domain of genetics, there are two independently developed alternative LPs. The main difference between the two progressions hinges on their assumptions regarding the accessibility of classical (Mendelian) versus…

When inquiry-based learning is designed for a collaborative context, the interactions that arise in the learning environment can become fairly complex. While the learning effectiveness of such learning environments has been reported in the literature, there have been fewer studies on the students' learning processes. To address this, the article…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the 5E learning model affects learning about the Solar System when an analogical model is utilized in teaching. The data were gathered in an urban middle school 7th grade science course while teaching relevant astronomy topics. The analogical model developed by the researchers was administered to 20…

This paper considers an approach to studying issues in technology and science, which integrates design and inquiry activities towards creating and exploring technological models of scientific phenomena. We implemented this approach in a context where the learner inquires into a biological phenomenon and develops its representation in the form of a…

The purpose of this report is to describe a science competency model and 3 related learning progressions, which were developed by applying the "CBAL"™ approach (Bennett & Gitomer, 2009) to the domain of middle school science. The Cognitively Based Assessment "of", "for", and "as" Learning (CBAL) science…

This study has three major purposes, including designing mobile natural-science learning activities that rest on the 5E Learning Cycle, examining the effects of these learning activities on students' performances of learning aquatic plants, and exploring students' perceptions toward these learning activities. A case-study method is utilized and…

These proceedings contain the papers of the IADIS International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2013), October 22-24, 2013, which has been organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS), co-organized by The University of North Texas (UNT), sponsored by the…