When instructors assess students' laboratory reports to appraise the underlying scientific reasoning, they disclose their own concerns, epistemological assumptions and beliefs about science. The analysis of such assessments (i.e. rubric-centred scores and corresponding justificatory comments) offer a wealth of insights that can be re-engaged in…

The international bestseller "How Do We Learn?" decodes years of cognitive science research into actionable strategies for K-12 teachers, curricula designers, and administrators. You'll discover how classic and emerging findings can transform pedagogy by pointing at practices that take advantage of the innate structures of the human…

One agenda of science instruction in primary schools is to develop learners' scientific reasoning abilities and to equip them with the necessary twenty-first-century skills. Few studies have been conducted to develop measurement tools that aspire to assess primary school learners' scientific reasoning. Most of these studies lack a theoretical…

As implementation of green chemistry into university-level courses increases, it is vital that educators have a tool to rapidly measure student knowledge of green chemistry principles. We report the development of the Assessment of Student Knowledge of Green Chemistry Principles (ASK-GCP) and evaluation of its sensitivity and effectiveness for…

It is becoming increasingly important for students to go beyond engaging in design by reflecting upon the nature of engineering (NOE) and wrestling with questions such as, "What do engineers do?" and "What is engineering?" This article describes an activity in which middle school students are asked to create a product to help a…

Nowadays, the assessment of student performance has become increasingly technology-based, a trend that can also be observed in the evaluation of scientific reasoning, with more and more of the formerly paper-based assessment tools moving into the digital space. The study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the paper-based and…

This article seeks to provide researchers and practitioners in laboratory education, particularly those involved in the curriculum design and implementation of teaching laboratories at university level, with a conceptual framework and a working model for an integrated assessment of learning domains, by attending to a more holistic approach to…

This study investigates the preservice elementary teachers' ability to use the components of an argument structure on a given science topic as well as the quality of the developed argument during their sophomore and senior year. In doing so, the study also aimed to discuss the effect of teacher education programs on the development of…

This article argues that what is most at risk in schooling during a global pandemic, or other similar broad challenges to normal functioning, are those elements that might be considered the less traditional and so the most progressive. After setting out some general background common to the challenge faced by schools and school teachers, this…

In an introductory biology course, undergraduate students are expected to become familiar with, and be able to use, hundreds of new terms to navigate the complex ideas in biology. And this is just in the introductory course! Juxtapose this student situation with the common frustration expressed by biologists that there is "just too much…

In this study, we reviewed 76 journal articles on employing drawing assessment as a research tool in science education. Findings from the systematic review suggest four justifications for using drawing as a type of research tool, including assessment via drawing as (a) an alternative method considering young participants' verbal or writing…

In this work, we present a teaching-learning sequence on colour intended to a pre-service elementary teacher programme informed by History and Philosophy of Science. Working in a socio-constructivist framework, we made an excursion on the history of colour. Our excursion through history of colour, as well as the reported misconception on colour…

This study introduces a teaching concept based on the Standard Model of particle physics. It comprises two consecutive chapters--elementary particles and fundamental interactions. The rationale of this concept is that the fundamental principles of particle physics can run as the golden thread through the whole physics curriculum. The design…

It is argued that knowledge about models is an important part of a profound understanding of Nature of Science. Consequently, researchers have developed different "levels of understanding" to analyse students', teachers', or experts' comprehension of this topic. In some approaches, "global" levels of understanding have been…

The "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States, 2013) recommend that science courses engage communities of students in scientific practices that include building accurate conceptual models of phenomena central to the understanding of scientific disciplines. We offer a set of activities, implemented successfully at both the…