This study aimed to foster students' critical thinking skills through the use of multiple representation-based worksheet. Through a quasi-experimental research design (non-equivalent control group design), the sample of the study consisted of 74 students drawn from a junior high school in North Lampung. This sample was divided into two groups to…

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Research for Education series represents a further effort by IEA to capitalize on it's unique datasets, so as to provide powerful information for policymakers and researchers. Each report focuses on a specific topic and is produced by a dedicated team of leading…

Teaching science concepts for conceptual understanding has its challenges. Promoting conceptual change in the science classroom can be difficult because most concepts are complicated and counter-intuitive. This dissertation research aimed to determine the effect of teaching for conceptual understanding models on pre-service teachers' conceptual…

Many studies investigating inquiry learning in science domains have appeared over the years. Throughout this period, inquiry learning has been regularly criticized by scholars who favor direct instruction over inquiry learning. In this vein, Zhang, Kirschner, Cobern, and Sweller (2022) recently asserted that direct instruction is overall superior…

The present study examined to what extent inquiry-based investigation as an instructional approach associated with students' overall science achievement and achievement in cognitive domains, including knowing science facts, applying scientific principles, and reasoning with scientific concepts to solve problems. Using TIMSS 2007 science…

Curriculum-assessment alignment is a well known foundation for good practice in educational assessment, for items' curricular validity purposes. Nowadays instruments are designed to measure pupils' competencies in one or more areas of competence. Sub-competence areas could be defined theoretically and statistical analysis of empirical data by…

To help explain the differences in students' performance on internationally administered science assessments, cross-national, video-based observational studies have been advocated, but none have yet been conducted at the elementary level for science. The USA and Germany are two countries with large formal education systems whose students…

This paper, through discussion of a teaching intervention at two secondary schools in Hong Kong, demonstrates the learning advancement brought about by group work and dissects the facilitating role of teachers in collaborative discussions. One-hundred and fifty-two Secondary Two (Grade 8) students were divided into three pedagogical groups, namely…

Children have formal science instruction from kindergarten in Australia and from Year 3 in China. The purpose of this research was to explore the impact that different approaches to primary science curricula in China and Australia have on children's conceptual understanding of science. Participants were Year 3 children from three schools of high,…

Now entering into its 20th year of data collection, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, (TIMSS) is an international assessment of mathematics and science at the fourth and eighth grades. TIMSS 2015 is the most recent in the TIMSS series, which began with the first assessments in 1995 and has continued every four years--1999,…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Herrmann Whole Brain Teaching Method over conventional teaching method on eight graders in their understanding of simple electric circuits in Jordan. Participants (N = 273 students; M = 139, F = 134) were randomly selected from Bani Kenanah region-North of Jordan and randomly assigned to…

Disappointing results of international monitoring studies such as TIMSS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study) and PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) have fuelled another general debate on the need for a sufficient level of scientific literacy and the necessity to improve the quality of science instruction in…