The purpose of this study was to examine the altering perceptions and opinions of prospective elementary science teachers regarding argumentation while they were engaged in argumentative discourse. The participating teachers were engaged in socio-scientific argumentation for 9 weeks involving a 6-step process on a course "Special Topics in…

The aim of this study is to determine classroom and science teachers' views about life skills. The study employed phenomenological method. The participants of the study were 24 teachers; twelve of them were classroom teachers and the remaining were science teachers. They were working at public schools in Turkey. The participants were selected…

Scientific modelling is a key practice in which K-12 students should engage to begin developing robust conceptual understanding of natural systems, including water. However, little past research has explored primary students' learning about groundwater, engagement in scientific modelling, and/or the ways in which teachers conceptualise and…

School-wide curriculum initiatives are complex fields of activity, held together by a cast of heterogeneous actors who put diverse discourses to work in their everyday efforts to shape their work. This paper draws upon qualitative data collected across an 18-month period in a regional Australian primary school that, since the beginning of 2012,…

Students' negative experiences of science in the primary sector have commonly been blamed on poor teacher content knowledge. Yet, teacher beliefs have long been identified as strong influences on classroom practice. Understanding the nature of teacher beliefs and their influence on primary science teaching practice could usefully inform teacher…

Learning astronomy involves significant spatial reasoning, such as learning to describe Earth-based phenomena and understanding space-based explanations for those phenomena as well as using the relevant size and scale information to interpret these frames of reference. This study examines daily celestial motion (DCM) as one case of how children…

In this "Primary Science" interview, science educators Alan Peacock and Mick Dunne reflect on their own experiences of what science was like in England before a National Curriculum was introduced. Among the topics covered are: earliest memories of science in school, teaching science before 1988 (pre-science curriculum for primary…

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the in-service science teachers' (IST) perceptions and practices about curriculum and integration of the history of science (HOS) and the nature of science (NOS) affect their science courses. For this aim, how ISTs integrated the NOS and HOS in their elementary science courses for understanding of…

Given worldwide concern about a decline in student engagement in school science and an increasing call for science for citizenship in New Zealand Curriculum, this study focused on a butterfly unit that investigated how students in a year-4 primary classroom learnt about New Zealand butterflies through thinking, talking, and acting as citizen…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore two elementary teachers' implementation of engineering design over two academic years and to describe how their teaching practice changed over the two instructional cycles. This study used field notes and audio transcripts of the teachers during their engineering design teaching, written…

This phenomenographic study attempts to explicit science and technology teachers' views of primary school science and technology curriculum. Participants of the study were selected through opportunistic sampling and consisted of 30 science and technology teachers teaching in primary schools in Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. Data were collected through an…

While research has shown that elementary (K-5) students are capable of engaging in the scientific practice of explanation construction, commonly-used elementary science curriculum materials may not always afford them opportunities to do so. As a result, elementary teachers must often adapt their science curriculum materials to better support…

Children have formal science instruction from kindergarten in Australia and from Year 3 in China. The purpose of this research was to explore the impact that different approaches to primary science curricula in China and Australia have on children's conceptual understanding of science. Participants were Year 3 children from three schools of high,…

Teacher efficacy has become an important field of research especially in subjects teachers may find challenging, such as science. This study investigates the sources of teachers' efficacy for teaching science in primary schools in the context of authentic teaching situations with a view to better understanding sources of teachers' efficacy…

The use of high stakes testing to improve educational outcomes falls short in many settings. Proposals for improvement include providing more opportunities for students to extend their thinking, gaining experience in the social nature of science, and learning how to interpret, explain, and justify results. This phenomenological qualitative project…