Vocabulary knowledge plays a critical role in supporting text comprehension and broader learning across the school day. While school offers opportunities to build vocabulary knowledge, studies have shown that very little time is devoted to vocabulary instruction at the elementary level. This may be, in part, because educators commonly report being…

This study investigates alternative conceptions of chemistry concepts among Faculty of Science students at Palestine Technical University-Kadoorie. Students are found to have incorrect views about fundamental chemistry concepts. The study aims to identify these misconceptions, understand their origins, and their impact on students' comprehension.…

Prior research suggests most students do not glean valid cues from provided visuals, resulting in reduced metacomprehension accuracy. Across 4 experiments, we explored how the presence of instructional visuals affects students' metacomprehension accuracy and cue-use for different types of metacognitive judgments. Undergraduates read texts on…

An essential aspect of scientific practice involves grappling with the generation of predictions, representations, interpretations, investigations, and communications related to scientific phenomena, all of which are inherently permeated with uncertainty. Transferring this practice from expert settings to the classroom is invaluable yet…

Narrative texts have been advocated as tools to tackle science learning challenges, and there is even the proposal of a "narrative effect" on learning. We believe it is necessary to examine previous evidence on this effect, as well as to characterize the process of learning through science narrative texts more broadly. In this article,…

The ability to relate physical concepts and phenomena to multiple mathematical representations--and to move fluidly between these representations--is a critical outcome expected of physics instruction. In upper-division quantum mechanics, students must work with multiple symbolic notations, including some that they have not previously encountered.…

"Science and Children" routinely addresses the challenges teachers face in integrating the "Common Core State Standards" ("CCSS") alongside the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS") (e.g., Forsythe, Jackson, and Contreras 2018; Sweetman and Sabella 2018). This article aims to extend this…

In a traditional lecturing environment, students possess limited agency in accepting or rejecting information provided by teachers. A higher level of student agency involves opportunities and actively identifying uncertainties and collaborating with peers to deepen understanding within the classroom community. Teachers play a crucial role in…

Calls to immerse students in the sensemaking practices of science recommend that students propose ideas and work together to construct explanations as well as drive the evaluation and decision-making around classroom knowledge-building. In other words, they should be participating with epistemic agency. Part of the teaching work of supporting…

Teachers teaching science to students in inner-city Title I schools should be the most influential group interested in education as a profession, yet it is rare for them to attain the desired comprehension of science amongst these students. The problem addressed by this study was the scarce knowledge of effective teaching practices and strategies…

This study examined the impact of a practice-based approach to in-service science teacher education, using small-group discussions about photovoltaic (PV) science to support teachers' instruction on sustainable energy transitions in response to climate change risks. Ultimately, we aimed to promote teachers' PV science comprehension as well as…

The alternative conceptions that students hold put a brake on subsequent meaningful learning, and therefore, the identification of these wrong ideas is crucial for effective teaching and academic success. Undergraduate STEM students often perceive Chemical Thermodynamics as a difficult subject, in which entropy has been pointed out as a threshold…

Conceptual understanding is one of the most difficult issues in teaching physics. This study investigated the effect of adopting cooperative learning and Internet reciprocal teaching (IRT) on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) literacy (physics) in secondary school by comparing the cooperative method with the IRT strategy and…

Reading and understanding scientific literature is an essential skill for any scientist to learn. While students' scientific literacy can be improved by reading research articles, an article's technical language and structure can hinder students' understanding of the scientific material. Furthermore, many students struggle with interpreting graphs…

Elementary teachers are tasked with teaching the language and literacy strategies and skills leading to reading comprehension while also teaching disciplinary content that is the subject of texts, frequently with limited instructional time. Prior research demonstrates that an integrated approach to science and literacy instruction featuring…