Numerous studies have shown that a considerable number of students do not accept the theory of evolution, prompting the scientific community to seek ways to improve how lessons on evolution are designed in order to promote students' acceptance. A crucial factor identified in many studies is students' comprehension of the nature of science and…

Our purpose in this paper is to put forward an argument about both the need and the value for understanding how the constructs of science identity and the nature of science (NOS) might intersect and intertwine and offer useful insights about science participation in times of crises. Based on our knowledge and understanding of these two research…

Issues associated with nature of science (NOS) have long been recognized as an essential component of scientific literacy. While consensus exists regarding the importance of an explicit reflective approach, precisely how to teach NOS remains elusive. The present study explores one particularly promising approach, namely the use of historical…

Atoms may repel or attract each other, but bound systems get virtually all of the attention in the classroom. To address the imbalance, instructors can explore the basis of repulsion in a few simple systems and highlight the important role played by the Pauli principle. A good example is the first triplet excited state of H[subscript 2] wherein…

The conventional approach to teaching blackbody radiation in introductory modern physics courses relies on an oversimplified explanation of Wien's displacement law, which does not uphold students' conceptual understanding of Planck's law and can lead to well-known misconceptions. Thus, there is a need to clarify the pedagogical role of this…

In order to describe the velocity of two bodies after they collide, Newton developed a phenomenological equation known as 'Newton's experimental law' (NEL). In this way, he was able to practically bypass the complication involving the details of the force that occurs during the collision of the two bodies. Today, we use NEL together with momentum…

What if energy flowed from cold to hot regions? How would thermodynamics be different? We examine such an imagined cold-to-hot world, abbreviated here as a C2H world, and show that the unfamiliar direction of energy flow implies that two thermally interacting objects at different temperatures will not equilibrate. We find that there is no…

If a ball rolls at constant speed on a horizontal surface about a horizontal axis then the angular velocity is easily measured. If the ball is projected with additional spin about the vertical axis, then the rotation axis is tilted and it is more difficult to measure the rotation speed. A few examples are presented to show how the separate topspin…

Physical chemistry students often lack conceptual understanding of the measurable quantities derivatives and integrals represent in particular problems. Also, two-parameter equations of state exhibit horizontal inflections at the critical point in the "PV" isotherms, and students must employ the mathematical properties of inflections to…

Students and educators often face time constraints, making it essential to develop interventions that are both easy to implement and have a substantial impact on learning and performance. One promising strategy is retrieval practice, particularly in the context of physics education, where many students struggle with basic knowledge. Prior research…

This article reports on the effect of textbook analysis as a tool of teacher professional development on nature of science (NOS) understanding of 10 science teachers in South Africa. The teacher professional development program (TPDP) was based on an explicit reflective methodology of textbook analysis and conducted online due to the Covid-induced…

Elementary teachers are navigating a curriculum landscape in which engineering activities now exist alongside science. Teacher education should prepare future elementary teachers to be critical curators of curriculum resources, which includes appraising the extent to which engineering and science activities authentically reflect those fields. To…

A framework for K-12 science education (National Research Council [NRC], 2012) supports science learning on social and political issues to make informed decisions and solve problems. Socio-scientific issues have been considered as a context to teach characteristics of nature of science (NOS). This study is a qualitative study in nature to examine…

Erduran and Dagher's (2014) account of the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) to Nature of Science (NOS) is a relatively new framework that frames NOS in a holistic fashion, inclusive of cognitive-epistemic and social-institutional aspects. This approach has also been referred to as the "Reconceptualized Family Resemblance Approach to Nature…

Values and how values are created in science education are an under-researched field, which is problematic given the importance of epistemic values to the nature of science. From a sociological perspective, values are experienced as emotionally infused ideas with the power to influence choices and actions in everyday situations such as learning…