Social semiotic discussions about the role played by representations in effective teaching and learning in areas such as physics have led to theoretical proposals that have a strong common thread: in order to acquire an appropriate understanding of a particular object of learning, access to the disciplinary relevance aspects in the representations…

This article is based on multimodal perspectives and contributes to research on how children deal with a multimodal illustration of scientific concepts used in emergent science (i.e., early years science) education. It presents a study of a group of 14 preschoolers observed when dealing with the concept of stability, as illustrated in a…

The importance of introducing students to mechanistic reasoning (MR) early in their schooling is emphasised in research. The goal of this case study was to contribute with knowledge on how early primary students' (9-10 year-olds) MR in chemistry is expressed and developed in a classroom practice framed by model-based inquiry. The study focuses on…

This study provides insights into the use of metaphors in protein synthesis descriptions in upper secondary chemistry and biology textbooks. Data were collected from seven Swedish textbooks and analyzed with the Metaphor Identification Protocol and categorized within the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The results reveal two main parallel…

Many science students struggle with using scientific language and making sense of scientific phenomena. Thus, there is an increased interest in science education research and public policy with regard to understanding and promoting scientific language use and sensemaking in science classrooms. However, there is a lack of comparative studies on how…

This study investigates if a force-based teaching approach, based on quantum mechanical principles and developed in a lesson study, would enhance the understanding of chemical bonding among upper secondary school students. The teaching approach was based on research on the teaching and learning of chemical bonding. The study included first-year…

The interaction between student language use and sensemaking is an area in science learning that needs further elucidation in order to meet government standards in science education. In this study, concept mapping was used to explore the relationship between scientific language use and sensemaking defined as the interaction between the scientific…

Cosmology concepts encompass complex spatial and temporal relations that are counterintuitive. Cosmology findings, because of their intrinsic interest, are often reported in the public domain with enthusiasm, and students come to cosmology with a range of conceptions some aligned and some at variance with the current science. This makes cosmology…

Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted immensely on individuals and societies around the world. This study aimed at delineating Swedish middle school (10-12-year-old) pupils' understanding of bacteria and viruses, thereby illustrating the influence of the pandemic at schools and in society. Data was collected by semi-structured, individual…

This study investigates the progression of students' meaning-making of epigenetic phenomena while discussing multiple visual representations depicted at different levels of biological organization. Semi-structured focus group sessions involving ninth-grade students (aged 15-16) from a Swedish lower secondary school were video recorded. Students'…

The COVID-19 pandemic had an immense impact on communities around the world. We know that new epidemic-prone diseases will emerge in the future. Consequently, it is important to investigate what impact the current pandemic had on school children's understanding of infectious diseases in order to develop biology education based on that novel…

Thermodynamic processes are often presented in so called P-V diagrams and the processes are often isobaric, isochoric, isothermal, and adiabatic. The purpose of the qualitative research reported here was to explore students' reasoning and interpretation of P-V diagrams that were presented by the help of GeoGebra. The research group had 15 students…

Statistical mechanics has received limited attention in physics education research and remains a relatively underrepresented topic even in research on upper-division physics courses. The purpose of this study was to explore potential challenges that physics students encounter when they solve statistical mechanics problems in groups. Adopting a…

Over the years, there have been various calls to increase and better represent astronomy in curricula. This is motivated by views within the astronomy and astronomy education communities that the awe, wonder, and interdisciplinary nature of astronomy has the potential to engage students in STEM across disciplines. Reviews of curricula have shown…

This study examines the contribution of the knowledge produced in educational administration doctoral theses to the functions of science, concept and model development, theory formation, scale development/adaptation and application. Content analysis, one of the qualitative methods, was used in conducting the research, which analyzed 122 doctoral…