Disagreement exists about how to best spark young children's motivation to learn natural science. Both curiosity and wonder are considered important motivational factors for learning during early childhood (0-8 years). This systematic literature review explores research about scientific curiosity and wonder in early childhood education and care…

The development of meaningful environments at school for the learning of Science as well as of foreign languages is an educational concern. CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), aimed at the students' acquisition of both the foreign Language and specific subject Content, is an approach that may promote the learning of English in use…

The EduLab model is a "new" educational model that integrates technologies in educational contexts comprising full equipped classrooms with attractive and easy-to-use technological resources. This model tries to promote a dynamic and more effective teaching and learning process. For this purpose, the model provides teachers training and…

The article shows methods and concepts of analysis of the nature of science in science curricula through an exemplary study made in Portugal. The study analyses the extent to which the message transmitted by the Natural Science curriculum for Portuguese middle school considers the nature of science. It is epistemologically and sociologically…

Demographic factors are among those that influence environmental literacy and, particularly, environmentally responsible behaviours, either directly or due to an aggregation effect dependent on other types of variables. Present study evaluates a set of demographic variables as predictors for environmental literacy among 9th grade students from…

The study analyses the extent to which the sociological message transmitted by the teachers' pedagogic practice recontextualizes the official pedagogic discourse of the natural sciences curriculum for a Portuguese middle school. Theoretically, the study is based on theories of psychology (e.g. Vygotsky), epistemology (e.g. Ziman) and sociology,…

This article discusses the results of a qualitative study, based on case studies, aimed at: (a) assessing a group of Portuguese secondary school natural science teachers regarding their conceptions of the nature, teaching and learning of science; (b) studying possible impacts of recent controversies surrounding scientific and technological issues…

This paper presents the first results of a project initiated in 2004 by the OECD in collaboration with Eurostat and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, and aimed at developing a regular and internationally comparable production system of indicators on the careers and mobility of doctorate holders. A first data collection was launched in September…