Understanding natural selection requires mentally linking various key concepts and processes. Many students find it difficult to construct scientific explanations about natural selection and might display misconceptions. Our study aimed to investigate the understanding of natural selection and the existence of teleological or other misconceptions…

This study developed the Investigable Questioning Formulation Technique (IQFT) protocol to formulate investigable questions by following the procedures of design-based research. As guiding heuristics, the protocol used two provisional design principles based on teaching experience and previous studies that have applied tools for formulating…

The aim with this study was to analyse and explore how physical sciences, engineering science and technology subjects (technical electrical technology, technical civil technology, technical mechanical technology) can contribute to the alignment of the technical sciences curriculum. We used document analysis to collect data. An analysis of the…

The notion of family resemblance has recently emerged as a promising and fruitful approach to characterising the nature of science (NOS) in science education research, offering solutions to some perplexing challenges such as capturing both the domain-general and domain-specific features of science with a single framework. At the same time,…

This paper describes a study conducted in Bachelor of Pre-primary education degree classroom during a Teaching of the Natural Sciences class. It shows how poster may be used as a teaching and learning tool for natural science. The main motivation that guided the research was the fact that half the teacher trainee students had been removed from the…

Systems thinking is a powerful concept in biology which can help students understand how the diversity of contexts in the biology curriculum all have similar underlying characteristics. However, it is not currently a common feature in secondary education as it is not part of the National Curriculum of England. Research on systems thinking has…

This exploratory qualitative study gathered data on adolescents' mental models of illiteracy before and after they read news articles on the topic and explored their epistemic beliefs about illiteracy and news articles as a knowledge source. Engaging with the news requires critical thinking and civic engagement, both central components of…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine playful practices in the science video composition of a fourth-grader. Design/methodology/approach: With an analytic interest in "chasing the theory of muchness" (Thiel, 2015a) that describes distinctive moments of affective energies in playful learning, the authors explored a child's…

Student-Teacher-Scientist Partnerships (STSPs) provide opportunities for students and teachers to participate in citizen science and engage with scientific concepts and practices, thereby bridging school learning with issues of importance to society, such as climate change. But STSPs require partners to cross boundaries between the cultures of…

Simulations, which are very powerful educational tools on their own, enable concretization of abstract concepts and help students research the variables related to the subject matter of the simulation. Simulations provide powerful modelling environments that include the interaction processes of physics concepts, bring active participation of…

There is an emphasis on survival-based selection in biology education that can allow students to neglect other important evolutionary components, such as sexual selection, reproduction, and inheritance. Student understanding of the role of reproduction in evolution is as important as student understanding of the role of survival. Limiting…

The third edition of the ASE's "Teaching Secondary Biology" sets out a vision for teaching and learning biology. Learning biology is not about learning the contents of a textbook. It is about conceptual learning, learning what it means to do biology and learning what it means to be a biologist. Our hope is that "Teaching Secondary…

Do pre-service teachers have the same beliefs in superstitions and pseudoscience as the members of their generation? We expect so, because they are slightly different in at least two of the variables that explain differences, namely family income and level of studies, and also, normatively, because beliefs among teaching staff appear to be a key…

Probing children's understanding of science concepts has been a focus of research in science education since the 1980s. In the process of learning, learners often produce many conceptions that differ from established scientific knowledge, which are commonly labelled as alternative conceptions (ACs). Knowing these ACs, their prevalence, nature,…

Development and evaluation of a teaching-learning activity in 4th year Forensic Physics course of Degree in Criminology was based on different combinations of a virtual laboratory and a research laboratory as teaching spaces. Students explored in detail the components and functioning of an electron microscope using both an online suite of…