A major goal of physics education is to develop strong problem-solving skills for students. To become expert problem solvers, students must have opportunities to deliberately practice those skills. In this work, we adopt a previously described definition of problem solving that consists of a set of 29 decisions made by expert scientists. We…

This research aimed to determine the trends related to blended learning studies conducted in science education through descriptive content analysis. This study was performed using the document review method. For this purpose, 120 studies on blended learning in science education were determined between 2005 and 2022 in the Web of Science (WoS)…

This systematic review aims to analyze trends in academic studies evaluating online learning environments that incorporate gamification elements and the relationship between these elements and learning outcomes. A total of 24 theses and 41 articles, published between 2013 and 2021, were included in the study, selected based on predefined keywords…

Both evolution and climate change have broad scientific consensus, and yet they are the most contested scientific concepts in the US K-12 education system. This study aimed to explore trends in proposed US state legislation employed from 2003 to 2023 by anti-evolution and anti-climate change education movements to constrain the teaching of these…

This study aims to determine the effectiveness of flipped classrooms in science education through the use of systematic review and meta-analysis. A total of 64 studies were analyzed by scanning the following databases: Web of Science, Eric, Taylor & Francis, and Education Full Text (EBSCO). Of the studies analyzed, 18 were selected for…

Natural science subjects have always been the most challenging for students in schools and universities. While the pandemic brought about a lot of new challenges, it also gave academics the chance to test out evaluation methodologies they had previously thought about but hadn't used in a relatively low-risk setting. The programmed learning…

Virtual laboratories are transformative tools in science education, yet comprehensive reviews of their prospects are limited. This study addresses this gap through a bibliometric analysis of 218 articles published between 2013 and 2023. Key findings included: (1) research has evolved from initial exploration to rapid expansion; (2) virtual labs…

Hydraulic fracturing ('fracking'), like other complex social and environmental issues, is a controversy about science which raises educational questions about how best to prepare young people to understand, respond to and, where necessary, act (or not) in response. It raises political questions. We present a state-of-the-art review of research…

With new technology tools available for educators and students, effectively using these tools to improve teaching and learning has become a constant theme for research and practice in the field of education. In this study, case-analysis was conducted on 305 published studies (from 140 peer-reviewed regional, national and international journals)…

Many students across the United States enter college with aspirations of becoming a successful career scientist within the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). However, the number of bachelor's degrees awarded in physics has significantly lagged behind the number of bachelor's degrees awarded in the other STEM…

While other fields such as statistics and education have examined various issues with quantitative work, few studies in physics education research (PER) have done so. We conducted a two-phase study to identify and to understand the extent of these issues in quantitative PER. During phase 1, we conducted a focus group of three experts in this area,…

This article sought to give an overview of different interpretations and characterizations of socioscientific issues (SSIs) by identifying single entities that could form components of SSI and give examples of where single entities were combined to involve SSI in enhancing scientific literacy. Through a narrative literature review, the article…

For both physicists who teach students in university and physics educators, how physics should be taught is a vital question. This study reviewed the trends of research in the field of physics education to identify the status of physics education research and help researchers in future studies. 2,959 articles were collected from the American…

The characteristics of successful MOOCs were explored in this study. Thousands of student reviews regarding five xMOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) in the fields of software, science, and management were extracted from the Coursetalk website and analyzed by quantitative and qualitative methods using the Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000)…

Evolution is a unifying theory in biology and is challenging for undergraduates to learn. An instructor's ability to help students learn is influenced by pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), which is topic-specific knowledge of teaching and learning. Instructors need PCK for every topic they teach, which is a tremendous body of knowledge to…