The goals of nonmajor science education are to improve scientific literacy and produce pro-science attitudes. Together, these goals are expected to improve an individual's ability to make evidence-based decisions based on newer understandings of the natural world as well as developing technologies. In a post-COVID-19 world, public understanding of…

Preschoolers receive inadequate science instruction despite preschool science benefits and adopting early learning science standards in New Jersey. This qualitative exploratory case study explored 17 preschool teachers of 4-year-old students' perceptions of using the New Jersey Preschool Teaching and Learning Standards for science and how they…

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…

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that jobs within the life and physical sciences will grow by 8% between 2020 and 2030; therefore, it is imperative that students receive an engaging, rigorous, and comprehensive science education. Many urban and minority students have been denied this opportunity as evidenced by their poor performance on…

Culturally Relevant Education (CRE) focuses on the design of curricular materials that strengthen students' cultural identities while teaching classroom content and science practices. While examples of CRE in science continue to grow, the identities and cultures of the designers are often different from those of the students and communities in…

The field of biology is becoming increasingly fragmented, and this fragmentation spills over into the ways our students think and learn about biology. Biology education policy documents stress the importance of teaching biology in an integrated manner and call for the biology education research community to establish a unifying paradigm for the…

This study was an action research self-study that examined my role as a teacher educator supporting a resident teacher in learning how to design inquiry-based culturally responsive science lessons. I explored my own growth in understanding how to act as a teacher educator to provide appropriately scaffolded support to promote learning for a…

"Citizen science" popularly refers to a participatory approach in which lay persons voluntarily contribute data toward scientific enterprise. Although citizen science may provide unique opportunities for pre-college students to engage in data-intensive science practices, little is known about whether or how citizen science interacts with…

The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a personalized narrative of one science teacher's use of reflexive teaching as an agent of change. This dissertation is about a journey of change in instruction fostered by a change of identity as a science teacher, using the butterfly cycle as a metaphor. This dissertation narrates the identity…

Empirical research within science education settings tells us that there is a need for new curricular approaches in the teaching of complex and contentious science-based issues, such as climate change. A lot of science educational research looks at a need to teach students "functional scientific literacy" in that we are not just learning…

This dissertation is an extended prescription for the inclusion of social justice in high school biology (HSB) curricula. Chapter 1 is context: a review of social injustice (mainly racism) in the US, and the specious scientific justifications for it. Chapter 2 explores how three veteran teachers introduce social justice in HSB classes. A…

This study investigates the challenge faced by eighth-grade students at Southern State Middle School in grasping abstract concepts within the domains of physical science, physics, and chemistry. This difficulty is manifested in their poor performance on summative assessments. A comprehensive analysis of state-provided data, in conjunction with…

Citizen Science is emerging as an innovative strategy to engage K-12 students in authentic science practices and relevant, real world phenomena. Citizen science is traditionally an informal science experience, with members of the public choosing to participate in the scientific research process through contributing data or other related efforts.…

With the constant strive for higher standards in education, New York State has joined with other states in the nation to develop a new strategy to teach science and 21st-century learning skills to ensure that our children are ready to compete in the global economy. This study sought to determine the current knowledge and perceptions of in-service…

The local problem explored in this study was the barriers and challenges facing middle school teachers in integrating and assessing writing in a science classroom. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the perspectives of college instructors and middle school science teachers regarding how teacher education programs provide…