This study investigates the role of environmental insight--defined as students' prior knowledge--and the use of a virtual reality laboratory in exploring celestial bodies and solar system content integrated with Qur'anic science, with a focus on their effects on students' argumentation abilities. The research employs a quasi-experimental design,…

The use of investigations in science teaching is both common and commonly advocated for in science education literature. We suggest that the use of investigations should differ depending on the complexity of the subject matter. That complexity can vary depending on both the nature of the information and students' expertise levels. The present…

The Framework for K-12 Science Education set an ambitious goal of broadening participation in science learning for all students. Meeting this vision will involve supporting teachers in making meaningful connections with the cultural and linguistic resources their students bring to school; in essence, developing pedagogies that frame these…

This inquiry sought to investigate the opportunities and potential challenges of engaging in a self-study approach as a strategy for enhancing professional growth during my teaching of the topic of evolutionary genetics to 24 twelfth-grade students. I had, for many years, experienced pedagogical deficits and shortcomings when teaching evolutionary…

A detailed characteristic of teaching and learning approaches used within the new concept of Learning by Being (LBB) is given. The evolution of educational paradigms from Learning by Doing (LBD) and Learning by Understanding (LBU) toward LBB is analyzed. The basic idea of LBB is students' ownership on cognitive goals, or the assumption of learning…

In this secondary-level lesson, students will generate and prioritize questions about the novel coronavirus and evaluate scientific and/or technical information from multiple authoritative sources, assessing the evidence and usefulness of each source for answering their prioritized questions. This lesson consists of three segments: (1) connecting…

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact a specific socio-scientific inquiry (SSI) unit has on student achievement and attitudes over the course of two years with two different implementations of the unit. Specifically, this study addressed the following research question: What impact does participation in an SSI unit have on student…

Mathematics is of major importance in science subjects. Unfortunately, students struggle with applying mathematics in science subjects, especially physics. In this qualitative study we demonstrate that transfer of algebraic skills from mathematics in physics class can be improved by using pre-knowledge effectively. We designed shift-problems…

In this explorative study, a diagnostic test on diffusion and osmosis (DTDO) was developed and used to assess pre-degree students' conceptual understanding and application of diffusion and osmosis in biology. The 25-item DTDO is a two-tier test--adapted from Odom and Barrow's (1995) Diffusion Osmosis Diagnostic Test (DODT)--developed and validated…

This research was informed by a constructivist approach to learning, with a focus on answering the research question: what skills can science teachers promote and encourage among students through designing and implementing problem-based learning in their classrooms? The research was carried out in a co-education secondary school in England and…

To be able to design a laboratory course it is important to know what laboratory skills students possess before the course starts. This way the course can focus on developing skills in areas that are lacking. Despite the extensive literature on laboratory education, there are few studies on what laboratory skills students have at this stage of…

This qualitative study sought to explore Malaysian novice chemistry teachers' experiences in teaching mixed-ability students during their teaching practicum, focusing on their instructional strategies for dealing with those learners in the class. The researchers employed purposive sampling to select 12 trainee teachers to be involved in…

Visual representations are a familiar element of daily life and particularly beneficial as illustrations in science textbooks. In this case, learners draw on human dimensions such as cognitive style (CS) and prior knowledge (PK) when engaging in visual thinking. This study aimed to compare and explore the relationships among the format aspect…

Knowing what students bring to the classroom can and should influence how we teach them. This study is a review of the literature associated with secondary and postsecondary students' ideas about acids and bases. It was found that there are six types of alternate ideas about acids and bases that students hold. These are: macroscopic properties of…

This paper deals with the joint construction of knowledge by the teacher and the students in a physics classroom. It is focused on the status of epistemic certainty/uncertainty of knowledge. The same element of knowledge can be introduced as possible and thus uncertain and then evolve towards a status of epistemic certainty; the status of other…