Texts presenting novel statistics can shift learners attitudes and conceptions about controversial science topics. However, not a lot is known about the mechanisms underlying this conceptual change. The purpose of this study was to investigate two potential mechanisms that underlie learning from novel statistics: numerical estimation skills and…

Providing high-level support to students on NGSS inquiry practices can be challenging; however, teacher dashboards can help teachers provide just-in-time instruction to students, both in-person and online. Prior work has shown some success with a dashboard that alerts teachers in real time on students' science inquiry difficulties, but teachers…

This paper discusses the traditional lecture-based instruction method. Strong experimental evidence suggests that social context affects knowledge construction and depends on prior knowledge. Engagement in the inquiry process using constructivist viewpoints can make the characteristics of science, scientific knowledge, and scientific method easy…

In the domain of research on physics education, results on students' conceptions show difficulties in physics learning. This paper aims to propose theoretical elements to interpret such learning difficulties related to physics teaching in the case of heat and temperature. Sections in this paper include: (1) Introduction; (2) Epistemological…

It is important to incorporate visual thinking into science instruction. Imagination and perception play vital roles in scientific inquiry. Metaphors, like perceptions, are drawn from common experiences and are a means to anchor scientists' thought processes in generating a pattern that bridges the gap between the seen and the unseen. Metaphors…

The paper identifies possible factors associated with changes in style and presentation of diagrams of lunar phases and eclipses in school textbooks and other resources. Science curriculum resource materials used extensively during the past two hundred and fifty years in North America and Australia provide insights into teaching and learning of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of the instructional role of the history of science and their actual practices of teaching science from an historical point of view. Specifically, this study is intended to answer the following research questions: to what extent do science teachers agree with the proposed…

In this paper, two studies are discussed--one conducted with seventh-grade science students and the other with undergraduate pre-service elementary teachers--using model-centered science curricula and instruction. In both studies, these students experienced model-centered teaching within a 12-14 week curricula in which they used, created and…

Recent research indicated that teachers conceive and orient their teaching depending (among others things) on their conceptions about both the nature of science and the construction of the scientific knowledge. This is an important educational issue because the image generally held by students sees science simply as a rhetoric of conclusions.…

Most of America's pre-service science teachers enter their preparation programs without having conducted a single inquiry in which they have developed the question being investigated or the means to resolve it. This article describes a study in which twelve pre-service secondary science teachers developed their own investigations--from formulating…

Models and modeling are frequently used as instructional tools in science education to convey important information concerning both the explanatory and structural features of topic areas in science. The efficacy of models as such rests almost entirely upon students' ability to conceptualize them as abstracted "representations" of…

This paper focuses upon the process of using curriculum and instructional frameworks to develop a curriculum unit in the earth sciences. The work stems from a graduate level seminar in science education which required participants to use a curriculum framework to design a unit of individualized science instruction. This research was guided by…

An historical perspective and emphasis on direct experiences are stressed in school science because, while they are the components most likely to be overlooked, they contribute to the development of pupils' scientific understanding. (Author/SK)

Science has many explanatory concepts that have been proposed to account for the observable features of things. Such explanatory concepts often have associated with them hidden or unseen "theoretical entities." The electron is a key concept in understanding phenomena described by science. The question arises, however, as to how students…

This paper considers the term "authentic science" and its meaning with respect to science education. In particular, three relevant denotations of authenticity are applied to nine facets of science. These facets include methodological and epistemological aspects of science, personal, private, public, historical, societal and technological…