Although the old problem of rotating liquid is described and solved in many textbooks and articles, the story still remains interesting. Intuitive understanding of the equipotential spatial surfaces is very difficult. This article is an attempt to present Newton's rotating tank in the light of the law of conservation of energy.

Students' understanding of nature of science (NOS) has been largely examined primarily in written or verbal modes. The visual, verbal, and written modes are essential for students' meaning-making of NOS. However, research has sidelined the interaction among these three modes in understanding students' collaborative discourse of NOS. Informed by…

We use a validated conceptual multiple-choice survey instrument focusing on thermodynamic processes and the first and second laws of thermodynamics at the level of introductory physics to investigate the problem-property dependence of introductory and advanced student responses to introductory thermodynamics problems after traditional…

The introduction of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT has raised many challenging questions about the nature of teaching, learning, and assessment in every subject area, including science. Unlike other disciplines, natural science is unique because the ontological and epistemological understanding of nature is…

There has been sustained research interest in the role of early career researchers in advancing the field and the challenges that they face. However, efforts to document lived experiences of researchers working in a specific research area within science education have been scarce. This paper considers the meaning of innovation in the context of…

This paper aimed to examine the changes in the representations of nature of science (NOS) in Chinese senior high school chemistry textbooks under the influence of the new curriculum ideas. The study was conducted based on an analytical framework in which the aspects of NOS, the approaches to address NOS, and the content relation of NOS aspects…

We investigate learning difficulties among second-year students in electromagnetism courses when they apply Ampère-Maxwell's law. Using phenomenography, we analyzed written answers from 65 undergraduate physics students to four questions on Ampère's and Ampère-Maxwell's laws. We complemented our research by interviewing 12 students. To design the…

This study aims to give chemistry students a deeper understanding of electron shielding and quantum transitions by interpreting the characteristic X-ray lines. There is a popular misunderstanding among learners and even teachers in which an outer-shell electron fills a vacancy in the inner shell, releasing some of its energy as an X-ray photon.…

Transcription is the critical first step in expressing a gene, during which an RNA polymerase (RNAP) synthesizes an RNA copy of one strand of the DNA that encodes a gene. Here we describe a laboratory experiment that uses a single assay to probe two important steps in transcription: (1) RNAP binding to DNA, and (2) the transcriptional activity of…

The demarcation problem as one of the most prominent topics in the philosophy of science deserves a higher profile in science education literature as a part of the discussions about the instruction of the nature of science (NOS) concepts to generate a scientifically literate society. In this qualitative survey research study, the views of the…

Developing students' understanding of and about science is an important educational goal. Learning the nature of science (NOS) has been recognized as a critical component of science literacy, affecting how students (our future citizens) make informed decisions. Textbooks can be useful teaching materials if the content presented aligns with…

Nature of science (NOS) is considered an important component of scientific literacy. Supporting students to develop a comprehensive NOS understanding is one of the most commonly described objectives within science education. Moreover, history of science can arguably provide a good context for NOS teaching and learning; it has been suggested that…

This report includes the analysis of three chemistry textbooks in high schools in Iran for representation of nature of science (NOS). The analysis was framed by an analytical tool developed and validated by Abd-El-Khalick and a team of researchers in a large-scale study on the high school textbooks in the USA. The results indicated that NOS…

The central argument of this article is that abduction as a "mode of inference" is a key element in the nature of scientists' science and should consequently be introduced in school science. Abduction generally understood as generation and selection of hypotheses permits to articulate the classical scientific contexts of discovery and…

This article presents results of research analysing the views on the nature of science (NOS) among primary and secondary teachers working in state schools in two different cities in Colombia. Previous studies have reported that science teachers maintain 'eclectic' epistemological perspectives on science; in this article, we test if such hypothesis…