Science teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning are a vital component of teachers' professional competence and are often assumed to impact classroom practice. To date, these beliefs have been predominantly investigated regarding teaching and learning in general or for a particular science subject (e.g., physics). It remains to be determined…

The curricular statements of most European countries contain goals for scientific literacies and process competencies. However, we argue that direct targeting by teachers of these goals, or active achievement of them by students, may not actually occur. We report our experience of implementing a teacher development initiative aimed at supporting…

The Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) serves K-12 students and teachers, school districts, state education agencies, and ministries of education throughout the world with curriculum materials, digital resources, professional development, leadership development (through our Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform [LASER]…

In order to thrive in today's uncertain environment, there is a need to master 21st century skills as well as knowledge of key subjects. Project-based learning (PBL) has been recommended as an important instructional strategy to prepare students for their future work and life. As teachers play an important role in classroom instructional practice,…

Informal learning is an important venue for educating the general public about complex socio- scientific issues: intersections of scientific understanding and society. My dissertation is a multi-tiered analysis of how informal education, and particularly informal educators, can leverage learning to respond to one particular socio-scientific issue:…

To understand the issues of inquiry-based education, I adopted John Dewey's theory of inquiry as the analytical framework to examine science learning activities, students' interactions, and education standards. Educators have tried to engage students in meaningful learning, but the analysis revealed that the meaning of inquiry was diverse:…

Argues that the absence of a relationship between doing science and the teaching of science is the problem behind schools' failure to improve the quality of instruction or the quantity of interest. That dissociation is attributed to fundamental working assumptions and the structures deriving from them that have dominated education in this century.…

This book provides a focused, extended response to the question How does standards-based science instruction look and feel in the classroom? This question is addressed by considering two related issues: (1) "How can teachers cultivate the quality of scientific thinking and understanding defined by standards?" and (2) "How can…

An increasing number of educators advocate the feeling dimension in learning. Quality emotions and feelings assist students in achieving optimally in the cognitive domain. Individuals who are hostile, negative, have short attention spans, and mistreat others in the classroom have more difficulty reaching their potential than other students in the…