Background: There is a somewhat common understanding that links teaching and environmentalism. This may be because schools are pioneers or are often used as platforms for many environmental advocacies. Years of research have demonstrated that teaching increases awareness and concern for the environment and encourages people to protect the…

In order to fix some important concepts of Fundamental Physics, either because they are not usually discussed in depth in theoretical classes and much less at laboratories, or because they are not sufficiently developed in textbooks, it is more effective not to tackle them directly, but to propose a mental or practical experiment to attract the…

Some of the online explainer videos for physics present misconceptions as scientifically correct explanations. Even so, some of these videos achieve good ratings on online platforms. A possible reason is that explainer videos with misconceptions foster an "illusion of understanding"--the mistaken belief that a topic has been understood.…

Science denial has a long history of causing harm in contemporary society when ignored. Recent discussions of science denial suggest that correcting people's false beliefs rarely has an impact on eliminating the adherence to false beliefs and assumptions, which is called the backfire effect. This paper brings the backfire effect within the context…

The United States still has one of the lowest evolution acceptance rates in the world. Biology educators have been diligent in their methods to increase evolution acceptance and knowledge, with much success. However, misconceptions still arise through education, textbooks, and even social and religious settings that may influence our citizens' low…

Alternative conceptions become obstacles in physics. However, it is difficult to find instruments that can identify students' alternative conceptions, especially in gases kinetic theory (DIGaKiT). The purpose of this research was to development of diagnostic instrument of DIGaKiT in identifying students' alternative conceptions by Rasch analysis…

To support the development of more robust conceptual knowledge, it is crucial to understand the alternative conceptions that students bring to the classroom, and how these can be considered and dealt with through instruction. In this study, we report the alternative conceptions of 498 students enrolled in secondary education in Ireland. A…

Acceptance of human evolution seems to be the majority position for the U.S. population; however, acceptance of evolution among conservative Christian groups is low, sometimes below 50%. There are many different reasons for this low acceptance, leading to a significant disconnect between scientific specialists and the general population. This…

Hundreds of articles have explored the extent to which individuals accept evolution, and the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) is the most often used survey. However, research indicates the MATE has limitations, and it has not been updated since its creation more than 20 years ago. In this study, we revised the MATE using…

Understanding why teachers teach the way they do is important especially in a time of curriculum reforms. Hence, the aim of this research is to unpack the secondary school physical science teachers' beliefs on the purposes and goals of science teaching (PGST) and to check the alignment of their beliefs on PGST with constructivism. A convergent…

In the era of universal and compulsory education, in which attention is paid to the ability to think scientifically, there should be no room for unscientific views. However, unscientific theories often appear in the media, and they find numerous supporters. Therefore, it was decided to investigate which of the common beliefs about the…

The theory of evolution is the central combing theory that brings together all the tenets of biology that bring about a solid understanding of life. It is also one of the most controversial scientific theories of all time and is widely rejected by about 40% of the general public in the United States. One of the biggest reasons for low evolution…

The conceptualisation of knowledge as justified true belief has been shown to be, at the very least, an incomplete account. One challenge to the justified true belief model arises from the proposition of situations in which a person possesses a belief that is both justified and true which some philosophers intuit should not be classified as…

This study examined middle school students' knowledge and beliefs about earthquake and tsunami through a multidimensional perspective of conceptual change theory. Four related constructs of conceptual change were examined including students' science knowledge, preparedness knowledge, ontological beliefs, and epistemic beliefs. Students responded…

This paper explores strategies for teachers to work with science conceptions, both those consistent and those inconsistent with western science understanding. It emphasises the value of teachers checking their own and their students' prior understanding of concepts to be learnt. A past approach of educators has been to replace old beliefs with new…