Background: The study explored how concept cartoons can be used as a teaching tool to improve Grade 4 learners' understanding of scientific terminology. The background highlights the importance of effective teaching tools in the changing educational environment, particularly in Natural Sciences education. Objectives: The purpose of the study was…

Video instruction has been widely studied and is generally considered as effective as live instruction for teaching scientific concepts and procedures. However, there is limited research on the effectiveness of prerecorded videos for teaching more challenging content. This study conducted a controlled experiment on over 300 high school students to…

Scientific modeling is a vital educational practice that helps students apply scientific knowledge to real-world phenomena. Despite advances in AI, challenges in accurately assessing such models persist, primarily due to the complexity of cognitive constructs and data imbalances in educational settings. This study addresses these challenges by…

Background: Blended mathematical sensemaking in science ("MSS") involves deep conceptual understanding of quantitative relationships describing scientific phenomena. Previously we developed the cognitive framework describing proficiency in MSS across STEM disciplines, and specifically Physical Science. The framework was validated with…

Background/purpose: This study aimed to measure the level of scientific concepts acquisition among basic-stage students in light of their teachers' use of artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Materials/methods: A scientific concepts acquisition test was developed to collect data. The study sample consisted of 396 tenth-grade students,…

Identifying the mental models held by students has been widely emphasized as being a pivotal aspect of effective science education. In fact, it allows us to understand students' conceptions, detect teaching-learning difficulties and tailor instruction accordingly. Hence, in this study, the plant nutrition mental models held by upper secondary…

As one of the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the crosscutting concepts (CCCs) have a presumably equal role in science teaching and learning as the science and engineering practices (SEPs) and disciplinary core ideas (DCIs). While much research has focused on teachers' understanding and use of the DCIs and SEPs,…

Background: Of many innovative laboratory approaches in the literature, POE (Predict-Explain-Observe) and PDEODE (Predict-DiscussExplain-Observe-Discuss-Explain) based laboratories approach have been frequently used to enhance laboratory studies during the last ten years. We contend that excluding the discussion phase before the observation stage…

High school chemistry teachers are increasingly expected to teach materials science content, often without formal preparation in the field. This study examines how 20 experienced chemistry teachers engaged with solid-state topics within a graduate-level chemistry course designed to support dual-enrollment instruction. Using a social annotation…

Students' perceptions of an activity involving visualization are important in assessing their learning of the task. In view of this, this study was developed with undergraduate students from different courses at a public Brazilian university. The research objective was to determine how three students, who are majoring in different courses…

A deep understanding of organic chemistry requires a learner to understand many concepts and have fluency with multiple skills. This understanding is particularly necessary for constructing and using mechanisms to explain chemical reactions. Electrophilicity and nucleophilicity are two fundamental concepts to learning and understanding reaction…

Big ideas in science education are meant to be interpretive frameworks that empower student learning. Unfortunately, outside of the broad conception of scientific evaluation, there are few theoretical explanations of how this might happen. Therefore, we contribute one such explanation, an instructional concept called integrative analysis wherein…

In this article, we address a call by Thompson and Carlson to directly contribute to defining the variation of students' reasoning about varying quantities. We show that students as young as in sixth grade can engage in complex forms of reasoning about multiple quantities in contexts that involve exploring science phenomena using interactive…

While research on the understanding of physics concepts in individuals with autism remains scarce, the ever-increasing number of these students in inclusive education nowadays makes their systematic education in all fields of learning necessary. For this purpose, an experimental investigation was conducted to compare 19 autistic adolescents with a…

The present study investigates how Greek in-service secondary education biology teachers understand the unique features of school biology and physics when considering the biological theoretical edifice and method. Our theoretical framework focuses on important differences that exist between the neo-Darwinian and Newtonian worldviews, while our…