Background and Context: Based on issues arising around how to best prepare CS teachers and the constantly changing nature of the CS education content, curriculum, and instructional methods, it is crucial to examine the needs of secondary CS teachers. Objective: The primary purpose of this study was to identify secondary computer science (CS)…

Research on science education in Africa shows many teachers continue to use traditional lecture methods even when curriculum favours more student-centred approaches. This paper explores science teacher professional learning as a means to realise practice change at a crucial time of curriculum reform in Ghana. The study was a qualitative formative…

In previous work, we described how three teachers differentially create opportunities for students to act as epistemic agents and to engage in collective knowledge-building work (Alzen et al., 2020). The descriptive nature of this previous research provided information about what variability can look like in classrooms attempting these…

Student participation in the science practices is more than following directions to conduct pre-determined experiments and analyze data with expected solutions. This requires classroom shifts that increase the epistemic agency of students: increase student involvement and authority in developing science knowledge and practices, rather than the…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) demand that science educators shift from traditional to NGSS teaching and learning. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the change process of shifting from traditional one-dimensional teaching to NGSS three-dimensional teaching and learning. A survey was sent to all science…

Despite being one of the largest carbon emitters in the world, the United States has little direct emphasis on climate change in its schools. Even where there is desire to teach climate change, the politicization of climate change sees school leaders steering teachers away from the topic. This piece examines what we know about climate change…

Purpose: Work-Based Learning (WBL) is a form of practical learning that is still rare, yet upcoming in academic education. It differs mainly from classical approaches because work experience forms a key curriculum element. To enable WBL, a cultural change in academic landscape seems required, which depends on views and support of academic staff.…

It is 157 years since Mendel presented his results on hybridisation in peas to the Brünn Society for Natural Science. The discipline of genetics has dramatically changed since then, with technological advancements revealing multifactorial causation and trait variability. Whilst none of this complexity featured in the discovery of classical…

A confluence of circumstances in educational policy and teacher preparation have placed a low priority on elementary science teacher preparation. Historically, a lack of elementary science teachers' subject matter knowledge and pedagogical knowledge has negatively impacted science teaching self-efficacy, which is linked to many teacher and student…

Teachers often rely on curricular materials as support for implementing reform-based science practices and as educative materials to continue developing ways in which they teach and approach science. Therefore, it is important to understand how teachers develop and use curricular materials and how they learn from their experiences. However, we…

This article deals with the study of natural sciences in non-compulsory secondary education from the end of the nineteenth century until the educational reform in 1970. We begin with a critical review of the ways in which the secondary education curriculum and textbooks of this period conveyed established knowledge about natural sciences. We then…

This discussion paper focuses on the purpose of, and vision for, Irish primary science education prior to the redevelopment and publication of the primary science curriculum in 2024. Scientific literacy is broadly accepted as the goal of science education. Despite this, curricular analysis focusing on scientific literacy in Europe is scarce. There…

Chinese 2017 General High School Physics Curriculum Standards explicitly include understanding the nature of science (NOS) as core literacy for students. History, philosophy of science, and sociology of science (HPSS) education is an important way to promote students' understanding of the nature of science. In this context, this study analyzed the…

Comenius (1592-1670) has been widely studied in educational research, although limited work has addressed his thinking about science education comprehensively. His Pansophist philosophy led him to believe that science was a necessary subject for all ("Omnes"). Comenius emphasised useful scientific knowledge and core principles…

Calls for engineering integration in pre-collegiate science courses are being made across the globe. The success of such efforts depends heavily on science teachers changing their instructional practices to include engineering. We conjecture when a science teacher chooses to make instructional change, including a change to integrate engineering…