Helping students understand that the scientific community's claims change through time, sometimes radically, allows them to develop a well-grounded sense of the "nature of science." Learning to reason about how scientific claims come to be accepted, and later refuted, is important for understanding the tentative nature of scientific…

This paper describes the design process for a digital instructional sequence on introductory quantum physics for upper secondary education. Based on a collaboration between teachers and physics education researchers, this sequence incorporates relevant theoretical foundations from the field of science teaching to promote meaningful and conceptual…

The research aim was to identify the effect of revising the thematic unit "Changes in Chemical Reactions" using IBSE (based on confirmation inquiry) in the 8th grade of secondary school. This thematic unit is taught in chemistry lessons in the 2nd term of the 7th grade. A set of activities verified by a piece of pilot research was used…

In the Italian education system, secondary students (ages 14-19) are confronted with the foundations of quantum physics during the final term of scientific high school (pre-university year). The Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (acronym MIUR) has remarked its importance in the syllabus to address the high school exit…

Education systems in once-colonised locations cannot escape the abiding legacy of colonisation. Science, in particular, has played a prominent role in the reasonings and rationalisations of the colonial process. When considered in the context of an education system established by imperial powers, it is difficult to reconcile processes of…

An Engineering Innovation Tool was designed to support science teachers as they navigate the opportunities and challenges the inclusion of engineering affords by providing a useful tool to be used within the professional development environment and beyond. The purpose of this manuscript is to share the design, development and substance of the tool…

Although infinite potential 'particle in a box' models are widely used to introduce quantised energy levels their predictions cannot be quantitatively compared with atomic emission spectra. Here, this problem is overcome by describing how both infinite and finite potential well models can be used to calculate the confined energy levels of…

This study is a detailed look at the level of understanding of fundamental ideas about blackbody radiation (BBR) among physics teachers. The aim is to explore associations and ideas that teachers have regarding blackbody radiation: a concept used routinely in physics and chemistry, which is necessary to understand fundamentals of quantum physics.…

Over the past two decades, Turkey has initiated a reform movement to change her classroom assessment system to accommodate performance-based alternative assessment methods in schools. However, research investigating the impact of assessment reform on learning and teaching in schools report that performance assessment approaches have not been…

Background: While the literature on strategy use is relatively mature, measures of strategy use overwhelmingly measure only one aspect of that use, frequency, when relating that strategy use to performance outcomes. While this might be one important attribute of strategy use, there is increasing evidence that quality and conditional use of…

The abstractness of certain chemistry concepts demands the use of appropriate teaching strategies to enable students to construct mental images of the concepts. The concepts include understanding the effects of concentration and catalyst on the rate of reaction. The reactions at the molecular level are not visible to human eyes and the use of…

Students come to class with little understanding about torque, angular velocity, and angular acceleration despite the fact that these physical science concepts are frequently observed. For example, torque occurs when car and bicycle tires rotate, the movement of fishing pole when hooking a fish, and when a person uses a hammer to drive in a nail.…

The aim of this study was to investigate 9th grade biology students' cognitive structures about the basic components of the living organisms and association between the concepts forming these basic components. Participants consisted of 50 9th grade biology students in two secondary schools in the northwest of Turkey. Data were collected by the…

The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss an alternative solution to an experimental problem given to high school students in the XXII Ibero-American Physics Olympiad held by Colombia this year. From the measurements of electric current and potential difference across a small tungsten filament lamp students should find the dimensions of…

Temporal analyses are critical to understanding learning processes, yet understudied in education research. Data from different sources are often collected at different grain sizes, which are difficult to integrate. Making sense of data at many levels of analysis, including the most detailed levels, is highly time-consuming. In this paper, we…