Double-slit interference is a difficult phenomenon for students to grasp in an introductory physics course. A thorough understanding of constructive and destructive interference is critical, but even with such an understanding, visualizing exactly how an interference pattern is formed by light passing through two slits can still be a challenge for…

Over the last years, the European Commission has heavily promoted various forms of digital education. In this article, we draw upon two recent European policy documents as key articulations of Europe's contemporary governing apparatus: Opening Up Education and the Digital Education Action Plan. The article more particularly conceives of both…

Certain explanatory elements or documents can convey unambiguously inaccurate explanations, or they may simply suggest such explanations and encourage a critical passivity towards them. This chapter presents these "risk factors", in particular: the accuracy of the conclusion and the associated "confirmation bias" (two…

Electricity, especially the flow of current, is a challenging topic for students of all ages. This study conceptualizes students' explanation of electric current as a cluster of knowledge elements. These clusters, in turn, represent students' mental models of electric circuits. Thus, this study aims to identify and characterize students' mental…

Contextual features of assessments can influence the ideas students draw from and the ways they assemble knowledge. We used a mixed-methods approach to explore how surface-level item context impacts student reasoning. In study 1, we developed an isomorphic survey to capture student reasoning about fluid dynamics, a crosscutting phenomenon, in two…

The canvas of science education needs to be viewed in its totality to prevent the confounding of some basic issues and to enable us to evaluate the fads and fashions in educational practice. Policies and processes in education are tacitly shaped by theories in the humanities and social sciences. Inadequate understanding of these theories, or the…

The aim of this research is to examine the effects of web 2.0 tools used in online astronomy education on the conceptual achievement of 5th grade secondary school students. For this purpose, the Sun, Earth and Moon unit was processed online using web 2.0 tools. The study was implemented in a public secondary school over a period of 6 weeks. Mixed…

Research indicates that teachers lack a sophisticated understanding of Nature of Science (NOS), which in turn, can impact their instructional decisions and students' understanding of NOS. The aim of the study was to investigate United Arab Emirates (UAE) early years' science teacher's (N = 433) perceptions about the NOS. Results obtained from a…

While much is known about teacher learning of nature of science (NOS) concepts, less is known about how teachers develop an understanding of how to effectively teach NOS or how instructional views might differ across levels of the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) wheel. Therefore, this study investigated the NOS instructional views related to…

The historical dimension of biology attests to the various conceptions of living organisms that have governed the construction of scientific knowledge over time, some of which still persist today. The present study aimed to identify and characterise the various conceptions of living organisms held by future teachers and biologists and the…

This study aimed at exploring the understanding of concept inventories for classroom assessment by physics tutors and pre-service teachers in selected diploma teachers' training colleges in Tanzania. The study employed a qualitative research approach and a case study design. Eight physics tutors and 20 second-year pre-service physics teachers from…

Einstein's derivation of special relativity theory (SRT), based on hypothetical reasoning and thought experiments, is regarded as a prime example of physics theory development. In secondary education, the introduction of SRT could provide a great opportunity for students to engage in physics theorizing, but this opportunity is largely being missed…

Coagulation is an important process in the context of water purification; and the seed protein of the moringa tree ("Moringa oleifera") is a remarkably effective coagulant. The laboratory course described here is designed to provide high-school students with a stepwise, hands-on experience in investigating the protein-rich coagulant…

The theoretical framework and conceptual framework help to determine the purpose of scientific research, facilitate the analysis of data, organize the thoughts of researchers, increase the reliability of research, and ensure that research is shared in a wide area. Although these two concepts seem to be basically the same, they have structural…

Instructors and researchers often use research-based assessments to identify the impact of instructional activities. These investigations often focus on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusions by comparing outcomes across social identity groups (e.g., gender, race, and class). Comparisons across groups assume the assessments measure the same…