Science classroom learning environment (CLE) and science teacher professional development (PD) are two important factors in students' science learning. However, the nature of the science CLE and school-level PD that promotes students' science achievement remains unclear. Using the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 data, this…

Background: Researchers have acknowledged that examining ICT in relation to disciplinary learning outcomes could offer a promising, synergistic research path forward. A number of empirical studies have been done to determine the relationship between ICT-related variables and students' science achievement. However, the mechanism of the…

Using many-facets Rasch measurement, this study aimed to detect and measure disciplinary context effects on student hands-on performance in terms of scientific inquiry competence. In Shanghai, China, a total of 251 eighth graders, from five junior high schools, participated in this study. The partial credit Rasch model was applied to help…

This study presents our attempt to elicit students' progression in understanding the matter concept. Past work has identified the big ideas about matter students need to understand, the many everyday understandings students hold about these ideas, and levels of understanding through which students progress in developing understanding of the big…

Scientific inquiry activities are considered as productive science instruction to improve students' science learning and achievement. Supportive teacher-student relationships and positive disciplinary climate in the classroom are also two important factors that could facilitate student learning. This study investigates whether the association…

So far, not enough effort has been invested in developing reliable, valid, and engaging assessments in school science, especially assessment of interdisciplinary science based on the new Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Furthermore, previous tools rely mostly on multiple-choice items and evaluation of student outcome is linked only to…

The study that is the subject of this paper tested the effects of EDI (explanation-driven inquiry) on students' redox conceptual understanding and their misconceptions. Two classes of 119 10th grade high school students were involved. Two groups of students in the same school were chosen. One class that was taught by EDI teaching was set as the…

Energy is one of the most central and richly connected ideas across all science disciplines. The purpose of this study was to develop a measurement instrument for assessing students' understanding of the energy concept within and across different science disciplines. To achieve this goal, the Inter-Disciplinary Energy concept Assessment (IDEA) was…

This study examines the relationship between opportunity-to-learn (OTL) at home and students' attainment of science proficiency. The data set used was the 2006 PISA science US national sample. Data mining was used to create patterns of association between home OTL variables and student attainment of science proficiency. It was found that students…

As the breadth and depth of economic reforms increase in China, growing attention is being paid to equalities in opportunities to learn science by students of various backgrounds. In early 2009, the Chinese Ministry of Education and Ministry of Science and Technology jointly sponsored a national survey of urban eighth-grade students' science…

Presenting both traditional and innovative assessment methods integral to science teaching and learning, this book shows teachers the connection between effective science assessment and improved student learning. The text uses a competence-based approach consistent with the National Science Education Standards to help teachers master assessment…

This paper reports findings on the changes in students' understandings of the concept of matter during an academic year, for students from grade 3 through high school chemistry. The instrument for measuring students' understandings of matter consists of three forms: one for grades 3-6, one for grades 7-9, and one for grades 10-12. The three forms…

Problems of validity and reliability of concept mapping are addressed by using item-response theory (IRT) models for scoring. In this study, the overall structure of students' concept maps are defined by the number of links, the number of hierarchies, the number of cross-links, and the number of examples. The study was conducted with 92 students…