[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] Research on nontraditional laboratory (lab) activities in physics shows that students often expect to verify predetermined results, as takes place in traditional lab activities. This understanding of what is taking place, or…

This qualitative case study delved into students' understanding and positioning while they participated in solving an authentic, conceptually-based problem in a high-school chemistry class. Verbal and nonverbal cues, particularly gestures, offered broader awareness of students' engagement in sensemaking during the learning experience. The…

Physics teachers are often faced with the challenge of having to set up difficult experiments, or they have to consciously manipulate parameters in order to be able to demonstrate a phenomenon convincingly. Comprehensive laboratory courses are standard procedure in any study program for prospective physics teachers. However, many students, even…

This paper reports on a study aiming at examining the development of science process skills through the implementation of experiments in a science course which was performed in flipped classroom design. Flipped classroom model was implemented for a series of experimentation activities in a science classroom in which 38 science teacher candidates…

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…

Background: This study explored science teachers' views about the nature and frequency of virtual lab implementation conducted by students and its contribution to developing science instruction and research in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Material and Methods: Focus group was employed to collect data through structured interviews. The sample…

In this study, it was aimed to examine the experiment design skills of Biology and Science teachers and preservice teachers. For this purpose, 85 Biology and 80 Science teachers and preservices given information about laboratory approaches, experiment types and science process skills were asked to design an experiment about germination. In the…

In this study, 24 experienced in-service teachers' science process skills (SPSs) development and their use of SPSs in their lesson plan through a week-long professional development (PD) supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (#117B302) were studied. SPSs are important part of scientists' work, scientific literacy,…

The use of creativity in science practices is many times lost on secondary students. Creativity is seen as something central to the arts and humanities, but tangential at best in the sciences. However, an examination of many great scientific discoveries and the work of everyday contemporary scientists shows the depth and breadth of the use of…

The ability to develop, use, and refine models of experimental systems is a nationally recognized learning outcome for undergraduate physics lab courses. However, no assessments of students' model-based reasoning exist for upper-division labs. This study is the first step toward development of modeling assessments for optics and electronics labs.…

Taking a test generally improves the retention of the material tested. This is a phenomenon commonly referred to as testing effect. The present research investigated whether two-tier diagnostic tests promoted student teachers' conceptual understanding of variables in conducting scientific experiments, which is a scientific process skill. In this…

This study examined the effectiveness of Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) as an instructional model in a general chemistry laboratory course. The study was conducted over the course of ten experimental sessions with 125 pre-service science teachers. The participants' level of reflective thinking about the ADI activities, changes in their science…

In this study, the effects of inquiry-based learning practices on the scientific process skills, creative thinking, and attitudes towards science experiments of preservice science teachers have been analyzed. A non-experimental quantitative analysis method, the single-group pre test posttest design, has been used. In order to observe the…

Designing inquiry-based science lessons can be a challenge for secondary school teachers. In this study we evaluated the development of in-service teachers' lesson plans as they took part in a 10-month professional development course in Peru which engaged teachers in the design of inquiry-based lessons. At the beginning, most teachers designed…

The students in working in laboratories in 21st century are preferred to take place as active participants in the experiments coming up with their own designs and projects by developing new ideas and problems rather than implementing the ones told and ordered by others during these experiments. The science teachers that would have the students…