Socio-Scientific Issues (SSI) appear to be a viable means for promoting students' development of science literacy, providing relevance to scientific concepts for students to apply their understandings and make sense of science-related issues. However, the question remains as to how their reasoning competencies regarding these issues interact with…

Science education objectives in Brazil have evolved over time. Initially, the focus was on creating scientifically literate citizens who could relate scientific concepts to their daily lives. In 2017, the São Paulo City Curriculum for Natural Sciences was introduced to teach students scientific literacy through inquiry-based teaching methods. This…

In a detailed exploration of inclusion in physics, social scientist Maria Ong makes the case for far-reaching higher education reform, noting that despite diversity efforts to recruit more women and students of color into science and mathematics programs, many leave the STEM pipeline. "The Double Bind in Physics Education" takes readers…

In the undergraduate student laboratory teaching, one of the most common goals is developing improved conceptual understanding linking theory and practice. This study presents a phenomenographic analysis of pharmacy students' conceptions of the theory--practice relation in the laboratory. Through semi-structured interviews with pharmacy students…

This study explores the role of unconventional forms of classroom assessments in expanding minoritized students' opportunities to learn (OTL) in high school physics classrooms. In this research + practice partnership project, high school physics teachers and researchers co-designed a unit about momentum to expand minoritized students' meaningful…

Naturalists enrich our scientific understanding of biodiversity. However, just as countries have fallen behind on commitments to provide biodiversity conservation funding, so has the focus of life science stayed arm's length. The purpose of this article is to consider why biodiversity should be the center of life sciences education and how…

This article concerns the synergy between science learning, understanding complexity, and computational thinking (CT), and their impact on near and far learning transfer. The potential relationship between computer-based model construction and knowledge transfer has yet to be explored. We studied middle school students who modeled systemic…

Background: Quantum physics has found its way into upper secondary school physics curricula worldwide. This trend coincides with increased attention for conceptual understanding in physics education in general and quantum physics education in particular. Students' conceptual difficulties of learning quantum physics are regularly reported. Little…

The purpose of this study is to analyze the learning goals, nature of science, inquiry skills, understanding of inquiry, and inquiry types in the senior high school physics textbooks in Indonesia. We selected the textbooks based on three criteria: (1) approved by the Ministry of Education and Culture in Indonesia, (2) widely used in senior high…

Representation in science is anything that stands for something else--drawings, pictures, graphs, or other representational forms (Danish et al. 2020). Representations serve as public displays of phenomena that make aspects of those phenomena explicit (Gilbert 2008). They can serve to make the invisible visible, communicate ideas, display…

Home-based biology experiments (HBEs) are practical learning activities that allow students to perform safe and relevant experiments at home. Motivated by the need to innovate teaching approaches in science education due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this study was conducted to determine the effects of home-based biology experiments (HBEs) on their…

Instructors make assessment decisions based on their knowledge and experiences. Assessment practice is an essential element of instruction, and the outcomes of assessments have a broad impact on both students and instructors. Efforts to provide strengths-focused, relevant professional development support regarding assessment are enhanced by…

Undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students' motivations have a strong influence on whether and how they will persist through challenging coursework and into STEM careers. Proper conceptualization and measurement of motivation constructs, such as students' expectancies and perceptions of value and cost (i.e.,…

Chemical bonding is an important topic which is difficult to teach well, especially for novices. This study set out to support preservice teacher educators by developing a framework for understanding and addressing the complexity of teaching chemical bonding. A model of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in science education that has been widely…

Physical and virtual labs have unique capabilities that can influence how students learn from them. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of physical and virtual manipulatives on students' learning of heat and temperature and to examine the influence of various combinations of physical and virtual manipulatives. A total of 205…