The Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) is a qualitative method, based on the Personal Construct Psychology (PCP) theory, which provides a powerful tool to elicit tacit personal construction systems, with minimal intervention and interpretation. Although the contributory potential of the RGT as a cognitive research tool in science education has been…

Honoring the variation theory principle that meaning springs from differences, in this article we will show how two different strands of theorizing emerging from the mutual base of phenomenography have developed into developmental pedagogy and variation theory, respectively. Through looking at texts from these two strands, we will illustrate how…

Teaching-learning process has a great important medium where pre-service teachers develop experiences and competences. Pre-service teachers are introduced to this process in a professional sense through the school experience course in teacher training. In this process, it is crucial to identify the encountered difficulties and matters. For this…

With a view to attracting more students and offering flexible learning opportunities, online teaching and learning is becoming increasingly wide-spread across the higher education sector. This research reports on the experiences of eight initial teacher education students who studied an outdoor education unit in the online space. Using a…

There has been little research into how children use language play in writing. The unprompted language play of 36 children was investigated through their writing of a short advertisement. The sample comprised three attainment sub-groups from a larger repeat-design study of persuasive writing in the 9-11 age-range. The writing was analysed using…

The importance of interdisciplinarity in the teaching-learning process has been much debated. This topic has challenged schoolteachers, who do not always manage to integrate interdisciplinarity into the school routine. This paper emerged from the discipline Research Methodology taught at the postgraduate course in education of Universidade Federal…

The shift in science education toward deeper, more integrated learning of domain content and scientific practices requires that teachers steer clear of strategies that promote the steady accumulation of more superficial knowledge and capabilities. Instead, teachers must invest in a continuous and gradual process of long-term growth in students'…

This special issue includes 5 contributions of contemporary work based in the phenomenography and variation theory research tradition and also actualises theoretical and methodological discussions. This introduction consists of 3 main parts. First is a brief introduction to and framing for the contributions through pointing to some of the main…

Collaborative learning is the current gold standard in pedagogy, yet within collaborative classrooms are many introverted students who are more reflective in nature and may prefer learning on their own or listening to lectures over social learning. Guided by the conception of Jungian introversion and person-environment fit theory, this qualitative…

Using researched perspectives of bodies and embodiment, alongside dramatic structures, where bodies are foregrounded, this article looks closely at bodies and embodiment inside of school settings. Specifically, it investigates a community in Southern Ontario and the perceived, affective, relational, and critical ways that study participants story…

Vygotsky's work on the individual/social relation provides theoretical tools for interpreting the origins of thinking and learning. Drawing on Vygotsky's ideas and data from one classroom, categories of practice relating to teaching and learning were developed in order to identify themes for an exploration of mathematical development within the…

The purpose of this study was to understand middle school teachers' perspectives on the role of homework. Approximately 118 middle school teachers volunteered to complete open-ended surveys describing their perceptions regarding the effectiveness of homework. Qualitative analysis revealed teachers identified several instructional and…

The aim of this study was to investigate how reciprocal peer assessment in modeling-based learning can serve as a learning tool for secondary school learners in a physics course. The participants were 22 upper secondary school students from a gymnasium in Switzerland. They were asked to model additive and subtractive color mixing in groups of two,…

Comparative education studies within the perspective of globalization are seen as important studies, as they reveal the problems in education and show defective aspects of the systems applied in other countries. This way they improve the available system. The purpose of this research is to study the current curriculum of Life Science lesson within…

This photo essay focuses upon the literacy practices of two groups of preschoolers as they built, illustrated, and dictated stories in response to their participation in a "Castle Project." Data, including literacy artifacts, photodocumentation, sociodramatic play scenarios, and conversations are qualitatively analyzed, coded, and…