Issues regarding scientific explanation have been of interest to philosophers from Pre-Socratic times. The notion of scientific explanation is of interest not only to philosophers, but also to science educators as is clearly evident in the emphasis given to K-12 students' construction of explanations in current national science education reform…

Scientific literacy is the primary goal of elementary science education. Scientific literacy requires an overall understanding of what science is, and how and why scientific knowledge is developed. The normal assumption is that as students progress in school, they learn more. One would expect students to become more scientifically literate as they…

This study aims to reveal whether there are any relations between secondary school students' perceptions of scientists and the images of scientists in secondary school science textbooks. The participants of the study were 140 secondary school students from a public school. The study is based on a qualitative research methodology. Qualitative…

Enabling students to learn about science is essential for science education. Students are expected to not only gain scientific knowledge but also need to develop a deep understanding of science. One approach to equipping students with a sense of science is to present science as a living collective human enterprise. As essential educational…

Language that uses noun labels and generic descriptions to discuss people who do science (e.g., "Let's be scientists! Scientists discover new things") signals to children that "scientists" is a distinctive category. This identity-focused language promotes essentialist beliefs and leads to disengagement from science among young…

This study investigated the science competencies that scientists and students perceived as important and their science-related experiences and analyzed them comprehensively using activity system framework in order to explore which competencies need to be emphasized more and what experiences and environments should be provided in school science…

In recent years, there has been a call in the research for greater attention to the role of affect in science learning and practice. Awe, which is characterized in the literature as an emotion that facilitates learning and motivates an orientation toward something larger than the self, appears frequently in scientists' descriptions of their work.…

This study sought to determine what undergraduate science students envision when asked to picture a scientist at work. Stereotypical understandings of who becomes a scientist and what the work involves may deter young people from STEM careers. The Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST) and variations have been used over 40 years to explore student…

There is substantial research in science education about students', teachers', and scientists' views of nature of science (NOS). Many studies have used NOS frameworks that focus on particular ideas such as tentativeness of scientific knowledge and cultural embeddedness of science. In this paper, we investigate NOS from the perspective of the…

The current study is premised on the expectation that the time university students spend on campus may represent the most substantial exposure they will have to science and scientists in their lifetime. Building on the cultivation theory, we examine whether exposure to science during undergraduate education -- through a major in a natural science…

The aim of the present study was to explore how physicists start their research studies, how they identify their research questions and what factors influence their involvement in studying a specific research problem. The grounded theory methodology was adopted in the study by considering the qualitative nature of the research questions. The study…

Low participation rates of students studying science at the secondary level are of international concern. One of the under-researched factors influencing low participation rates in the sciences in Australia is primary school student stereotypes concerning science and scientists. We explore how Year 4 (9-10-year-olds) students perceive science,…

Concern that stereotypical perceptions of scientists may influence attitudes towards science and willingness to pursue STEM-related careers has motivated interest in children's perceptions of scientists. This study investigated primary children's drawings of scientists at work based on Chambers' 'Draw-A-Scientist Test' (DAST) and explored the…

The Research Experiences in Marine Science (REMS) Program is a Hawai'i place-based CURE (course-based undergraduate research experience) for late high school and early undergraduate students wherein students conduct independent research that draws upon the history, culture, and ecosystem of their local communities. In addition to providing…

Newton married her, Einstein eloped with her, and many a physicist fell head over heels for her beauty, charm, and heavenly elegance! This paper is a heartfelt personal attempt to make sense of the indescribable love many physicists have for their subject matter, physics. My muse's nickname is Feezya and this is how she shall be referred to for…