Inquiry-based instruction has played an important role in science education, and been recognized as a critical approach to improve students' scientific learning effectiveness. However, current research revealed that it is a challenge for teacher education programs to improve pre-service science teachers' inquiry-based instructional activity design…

Teachers' teaching practices are influenced by various factors, including the teacher's personal (e.g. beliefs, efficacy and attitudes) and school context (e.g. administrative and collegial support). However, the previous model did not consider the interactions between these factors simultaneously in effecting the teaching practices. Thus, an…

Although most teachers recognize the importance of taking investigative, open-ended approaches to students' learning experiences, implementing them in high school classes can be challenging for teachers. In this work, we analyzed data from multiple sources from a teaching Community of Practice (CoP) to investigate (a) barriers to taking an…

It is crucial for students with learning disabilities (SLDs) to possess psychological resilience in order to pursue their careers as entrepreneurial individuals. One of the areas where entrepreneurship skills are taught in middle school is in science courses. This shows the importance of teaching psychological resilience in science courses. On the…

Active learning is considered among teaching approaches best suited for promoting critical thinking in science classrooms. Hence, the reformed South African school curriculum identified active learning as appropriate to achieve most of its objectives. This paper reports on an explorative study of a science teacher's active learning conceptions and…

Inquiry is one integral part of science learning. Understanding the underlining meaning and the complete procedures of inquiry-based laboratories would be beneficial to student teachers' future work. Therefore, it is necessary for student teachers to perform inquiry-based laboratories and know how to demonstrate them to school students. However,…

This paper describes an approach to working with secondary preservice mathematics and science (M&S) teachers to develop their ability to design for active learning. It presents the design of a studio-style intervention that augments existing teacher education. It describes the way that these studios can be organised, with specific suggestions…

In this article we report on the initial professional discourse on teaching natural science (NS) in the Foundation Phase among a sample of novice teachers in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The sample comprised 7 novice teachers (NTs) with 3 or fewer years of teaching experience. We investigated the NTs preparedness to teach NS,…

Internationally, second level curriculum policy for STEM education is concentrating its efforts on promoting curriculum-making pedagogies, with enquiry-based teaching and learning at the forefront of this change. Policy aspirations have not translated well into practice, evidenced by science practical lessons consistently being delivered as…

This study explored the pedagogical strategies employed by grade 12, life-sciences teachers in township schools to teach complex concepts, such as genetics and meiosis, using improvised teaching resources. Resource constraints in South African township schools often limit learners' access to traditional teaching materials and technologies. In…

Research has extensively documented the benefits of inquiry-based science teaching, but less attention has been paid to how novice teachers' personal teaching goals influence their implementation of this approach. This study aimed to explore novice physical sciences teachers' goals to understand how they relate to IBI implementation. This research…

This study analyses the teachers' perceptions of their capacity for designing and developing STE(A)M projects in a professional development programme (PD) conducted through a collaborative educational research project carried out between the University and the centres by the IndagaSTEAM Escuela project. Incorporating STEAM education in the…

This study explored science and mathematics teachers' knowledge and beliefs about project-based instruction (PBL). Data included two focus groups, and a 12-item questionnaire administered to 138 teachers. The response rate was 70% (n=96). Results show strong teacher knowledge of PBL Gold Standard Design Elements/Teaching Practices, but low usage…

Equity in education has been conceptualized in various ways, which provides different affordances and constraints for policy, research, and teaching decisions. Regarding the latter, there is a dearth of research on how postsecondary science faculty conceptualize equity and whether and how their understandings of equity may be informing their…

Project-based learning (PjBL) instruction is an inquiry-based method that is beneficial to student achievement and their exploration of 21st-century learning skills, but there is a gap in the literature about how Grades 6 to 8 teachers feel about PjBL and its implementation. The research problem was science teachers in the United States were not…