This study investigates Hong Kong primary science teachers' understandings of inquiry learning, perceived difficulties in implementing inquiry learning, as well as their current practices of and resistance to using online resources, in order to identify their needs and propose suggestions to address these needs. An online survey has been used to…

In the literature, there is a general concern that a less number of students choose to study science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM). This paper presents results from a Danish longitudinal study which examines students' choice of whether or not to continue studying STEM after upper-secondary school. In particular, this study focuses…

Background: The motivation for this work is built upon the premise that there is a need for research-based materials for design-based science instruction. In this paper, a small portion of our work investigating the impact of a LEGO[TM] engineering unit on fourth grade students' preconceptions and understanding of animals is presented. Purpose:…

The "Green Classroom" in the Botanical Garden of the University of Ulm is a learning forum outdoor school that is used by about 2500 school students annually. Its educational concept is based on experiential learning and is geared towards expanding students' biological knowledge and developing positive attitudes towards small animals and…

This study used qualitative content analysis to examine anonymous questions about sex and sexuality submitted by Latino and African American adolescents in Los Angeles, California, classrooms. The majority of questions asked about sexuality and sexual behavior, or anatomy and physiology, with fewer questions about pregnancy and pregnancy…

While remarkably positive findings have been presented in research focusing on Sport Education in school settings, investigations on how preservice teachers learn to teach a new curriculum in physical education have been described as "the missing link" in curriculum research. The purpose of this study was to introduce Sport Education to…

Nowadays, the importance given to astronomy teaching in science and physics education has been gradually increasing. At the same time, teachers play an important role in remediating the misconceptions about astronomy concepts held by students. The present study aims to determine the misconceptions of pre-service physics teachers (n = 117),…

This quantitative, quasi-experimental pretest/posttest control group design examined the effects of online collaborative learning on middle school students' science literacy. For a 9-week period, students in the control group participated in collaborative face-to-face activities whereas students in the experimental group participated in online…

In order to challenge our undergraduate students' enduring misconception that plants, animals, and fungi must be "advanced" and that other eukaryotes traditionally called protists must be "primitive," we have developed a 24-hour take-home guided inquiry and investigation of live Physarum cultures. The experiment replicates…

The purpose of this article is to re-conceptualize the role of the monolingual teacher in mainstream K-12 classrooms in the United States who work with students who are mostly multilingual and transnational. The proposed role for monolingual teachers is to incorporate at least some of the resources available in students' native languages, even if…

In view of the perceived difficulty of organic chemistry unit for high schools students, this study examined the usefulness of concept mapping as a testing device to assess students' difficulty in the select areas. Since many tests used for identifying students misconceptions and difficulties in school subjects are observed to favour one or the…

Today's World is in period of rapid development of science and technology. There is science and technology education that not based on rote, practical on the basis of development in science and technology. Misconceptions are a major obstacle in order to take the desired efficiency. Because concepts that learned wrong obstacle attainment of right…

This dissertation is presented in two sections. First, I explore two methods of using stable isotope analysis to trace environmental and biogeochemical processes. Second, I present two related studies investigating student understanding of the biogeochemical concepts that underlie part one. Fe and Hg are each biogeochemically important elements in…

Going beyond measuring accuracy of teachers' judgments of students? achievements, this paper focuses on how prospective elementary teachers proceed in one-on-one diagnostic mathematics interviews. As part of the project diagnose:pro, prospective elementary teachers (PTs) conduct diagnostic interviews with children in grade one and reflect on…

This study is the part of a larger study on investigating Hong Kong (HK) prospective teachers' (PTs) subject matter knowledge (SMK) and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). In this paper, five HK PTs' and PC on teaching one topic regarding square root were investigated. The results suggest that insufficient understanding on the concept of…