This paper focuses on the context underpinning the implementation of ethno science at the K-12 school science curriculum in the context of Nepal. Since human evolution, Indigenous people have both gained scientific knowledge and practiced scientific skills. This paper refers to this knowledge as Ethno Science/ Indigenous Wisdom. However, hegemonic…

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…

This article traces the development of the wartime Japanese curriculum, which was deliberately designed to implement 'Japanese' approaches to science, and its relation to the previously dominant educational approach, learning by doing. It examines the work of Shiono Naomichi (1898-1969), who served as the curriculum and textbook revision director…

Project-Based Learning (PjBL) curricula offer unique opportunities for student engagement, yet they do not guarantee an engaging classroom. Furthermore, there has been little scholarly work on PjBL pedagogy that supports student engagement. This qualitative research study explores enactment of a PjBL Advanced Placement Physics 1 curriculum and the…

In this chapter, eight foci relevant for science educators are presented and illustrated by paradigmatic examples and discussed in two parts. The first part "from science education to practice and authorities" discusses the four foci of: (1) developing concepts for instruction; (2) responding to the needs of schools; (3) connecting…

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed many aspects of our world including the way we teach chemistry. Our emergence from the pandemic provides an opportunity for deep reflection and intentional action about what we teach, and why, as well as how we facilitate student learning. Focusing on foundational postsecondary chemistry courses, we…

As a discipline, international education focuses on developing an international consciousness. There are moral and ethical, as well as pragmatic, consequences of the development of an international consciousness: In terms of ethics and morality, international education inculcates positive attitudes towards international understanding and global…

This dissertation takes a close look at how district-level instructional coaches support teachers in learning to shifting their instructional practice, related to the Next Generation Science Standards. This dissertation aims to address how re-structuring professional development to a job-embedded coaching model supports individual teacher learning…

In this response to Molly Ware's review of our 2013 book, "John Dewey and Education Outdoors," we extend her suggestion that complexity be regarded as an important, generative force in education reform. Drawing on Dewey's 1933 "Utopian Schools" speech, we discuss the "level deeper" that Dewey sought as he…

Internationally, STEM has become a slogan for organizing new discourses and practices in science education. In the form of a three-act play, we argue that STEM as social engineering orients and organizes school science education curriculum development in directions of scientific innovation and engineering that reinforce and legitimize a neoliberal…

This article argues that school curriculum development should start with aims rather than with subjects and that the fundamental aims of school education should be to enable each learner to lead a personally flourishing life and to help others to do so too. These overarching aims give rise to more specific ones by considering how human flourishing…

The concept of project-based learning (PBL) has garnered wide support among a number of K-12 education policy advocates and funders. This working paper builds on and updates a seminal literature review of PBL published in 2000. Focused primarily on articles and studies that have emerged in the 17 years since then, the working paper discusses the…

Backward design provides a framework for curriculum planning that can be used at unit, course or school level. The approach places assessment at the heart of the planning process. In this article the ideas of backward design are outlined and their application to a current curriculum development project, York Science, is described.

In this paper, I explain variation in the adoption of student-centred teaching practices among college faculty members in a program designed to promote K-20 instructional reform. I analyze data from a qualitative study of a Math and Science Partnership in order to understand why some faculty members had undergone extensive changes to their…

It is important for young people to be able to read science-related media reports with discernment. "Getting Newswise" was a research project designed to enable science and English teachers, working collaboratively, to equip pupils through the curriculum with critical reading skills appropriate for science news. Phase 1 of the study…