The objective of this work was the theoretical modeling of a construct based on teaching practice about the perception that pupils have of difficulties in problem solving (PS) in experimental sciences, specifically physics, to predict pupil performance in PS. The research was carried out with an incidental sample of second year of secondary…

Affective and cognitive outcomes of science teaching in schools may be enhanced by science outreach labs (SOLs). Particularly interesting is whether and how to connect SOL visits to in-school science learning. Recent studies--among others, in this journal--have confirmed SOLs' positive affective effects. However, research remains inconclusive…

Purpose: The present study examined the effect of Directed Activity Related to Texts (DARTs) and gender on student achievement in qualitative analysis in chemistry. It focused on the qualitative analysis component of the Chemistry course, which for students has been perceived as being the most difficult aspect of their mastery of the subject.…

Heat and temperature concepts are found at all levels in the science curricula and are well-known for creating conceptual difficulties for learners. Students have difficulty understanding concepts related to heat, temperature, and thermal radiation. Inquiry-based pedagogies that can foster the learning of these difficult concepts are needed.…

Physics program for girls (PPG) is a two-week program held every summer since 2006, with the goal of engaging young women in inquiry-based physics experiments and to connect them with female science, technology, engineering, and mathematics professional role models. The program recruits young women to participate the summer after they have taken…

This study aims to examine the influence of inquiry-based instruction on eighth-grade male and female students' motivation and engagement in science learning in two public junior high schools in central Taiwan. Mixed-methods methodology was adopted with 60 students (32 males and 28 females) in the experimental group and 56 students (28 males and…

Decreasing interest in Science among students, confirmed by several investigations, calls for the need to revise the contents of the curricula for Science subjects, including Biology. Modern Biology curricula should not only contain key biological concepts but also provide a teacher with sufficient space to develop students' competencies of…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of designing problem-based experiments (DPBE) on the level of metacognitive skills of prospective science teachers. For this purpose, pre test-post test design, without control group, was used in the research. The research group of the study comprised 113 second-grade prospective science…

Aim of this study is to investigate students' ideas on cooperative learning method. For that purpose students who are studying at elementary science education program are distributed into two groups through an experimental design. Factors threaten the internal validity are either eliminated or reduced to minimum value. Data analysis is done…

The observation of living animals in school laboratories provides authentic views of biological research. Various studies stress the importance of primary experiences in biology classes. However, educational films may serve as an alternative in some cases. The aim of this study was to investigate student motivation before and after treatments,…

Students in 12 secondary schools in three states of Malaysia were taught to use worksheets on the chemical kinetics topic which had been pre-created using the MS Excel worksheets. After the teaching, an opinion survey of 612 Form Six students from these schools was conducted. The results showed that almost all the students felt that MS Excel…

This study is based on two exploratory questions with the aim of determining the relative effectiveness of two different student activities, called "Reading, Presenting and Questioning" (RPQ) and "Experimenting and Discussing" (ED), in changing students' perceptions and attitudes about the impact of physics learning on the…

In the Community-Based Inquiry (CBI) instructional method, cooperative student groups complete case study activities based on scientific literature and conduct their own laboratory investigations that address authentic community needs. This study compared critical thinking and content knowledge outcomes between traditional Introduction to…

A mixed-methods sequential research design has been used to test the effect of introducing teacher science demonstrations to a traditional book-learning sample of 384 Grade 7 boys and girls from five schools in Lahore, Pakistan. In the quasi-experimental quantitative study, the eight classes of comparable ability were designated either…

We describe a study of programs to deepen families' scientific inquiry practices in a science museum setting. The programs incorporated research-based learning principles from formal and informal educational environments. In a randomized experimental design, two versions of the programs, called "inquiry games," were compared to two control…