In this study, the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of four experienced primary school teachers was investigated within the "Let's Solve the Riddle of Our Body Unit". The PCK investigation adopted a learning approach based on inquiry, content representation and pedagogical and professional-experience repertoires (PaP-eRs), and…

This study explored three high school agriculture teachers' perceptions of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) integration through interviews. The approach was constructivist and data were analyzed according to the framework of integrated STEM education presented in a National Academy of Sciences report. Each participant…

There has been widespread concern about the provision of quality education (QE) for all learners in all contexts, but research evidence to inform this debate is quite divergent and in most of cases the question about achieving this desire seems to be full of myths. This paper examines a selection of embedded myths about QE in Tanzanian education…

The purposes of the present study are to elicit pre-service elementary science teachers' scientific and pseudoscientific beliefs about earthquake and to make inferences about their understandings of science. Although the subject of earthquake is not a pseudoscientific area, some pseudoscientific beliefs related to earthquake were used in this…

This work investigates the formation of particular student profiles based on of their ideas relating to basic characteristics of the atom. Participants were secondary students of 8th, 10th and 12th grades from Northern Greece (n = 421), with specific cohort characteristics e.g. age, grade and class curriculum, and individual differences, e.g.…

Showcase the diverse capabilities of students with ASD, and pervasive developmental disorders. Descriptive examples and interactive activities guide teachers to understand how these disorders affect student progress and how educators can tap into student potential.

In online educational systems we can easily collect and analyze extensive data about student learning. Current practice, however, focuses only on some aspects of these data, particularly on correctness of students answers. When a student answers incorrectly, the submitted wrong answer can give us valuable information. We provide an overview of…

Although U.S. high school students' access to Earth and space science (ESS) varies widely from state to state, nationally, ESS content is the most neglected area of science education and scientific literacy. States have been considering whether they will formally adopt, or less formally adapt, the new national science education standards, the Next…

While the majority of published research on conceptual change has focused on how misconceptions can be abandoned or modified, some recent research findings support the hypothesis that acquired scientific knowledge does not necessarily erase or alter initial non-scientific knowledge but rather coexists with it. In keeping with this…

This study investigates the effect of using the history of science in teaching geometrical optics on the motivation and conceptual understanding of first year university students. For this purpose, 54 students were randomly selected, then divided into two groups: the experimental group was taught by using history of science before traditional…

Previous research indicates that beginning teachers are not fully prepared for what awaits them in the workforce. This study highlights the value of partnerships among higher education providers, schools and employers and links the experiences of beginning teachers to initial teacher education (ITE). Real-life experiences from the field provide…

Educational choice programs--defined broadly as programs that provide parents financial aid to opt their children out of the traditional public school system--have been a topic of significant public discussion and debate in recent months. Despite the increasing news coverage, however, polls show that most Americans are unfamiliar with educational…

Some characterizations describe social pedagogy as a broad, complex, ambiguous and problematic concept that applies to very different things. This is due to the simplicity of the tools used to approach such a complex area. A change of perspective to interpret social pedagogy as a hybrid and complex subject may transform the alleged deficiencies…

The article discusses changes and revisions of the Norwegian official Grand Narrative, as portrayed in primary school history textbooks. The selected corpus of textbooks of 1885-1940 shows narrative and historiographical changes supporting a hypothesis of a development from a "Narrative of Suffering" towards a "Narrative of…

Teaching and learning about complex scientific content, such as biological evolution, is challenging in part because students have a difficult time seeing the relevance of evolution in their everyday lives. The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of the Teaching for Transformative Experiences in Science (TTES) model (Pugh, 2002)…