Educators have realized the importance of engaging students in learning. Teachers often see participatory behaviors like "hand raising" as evidence of students being engaged in an activity. These indications of engagement do not capture motivational factors behind true engagement. A research team developed a five item scale to easily…

The purpose of this study is to prepare a multiple-choice achievement test with high reliability and validity for the "Let's Solve the Puzzle of Our Body" unit. For this purpose, a multiple choice achievement test consisting of 46 items was applied to 178 fifth grade students in total. As a result of the test and material analysis…

Learning science in the middle years can be an emotional experience. In this study, we explored ninth-grade students' discrete emotions expressed during science activities in a 9-week unit on chemistry. Individual student's emotions were analyzed through multiple data sources including classroom videos, interviews, and emotions diaries completed…

We assessed the impact of teaching methodological aspects of physics on students' scientistic beliefs and subject interest in physics in a repeated-measurement design with a total of 142 students of upper secondary physics classes. Students gained knowledge of methodological aspects from the pre-test to the post-test and reported reduced…

Graphics presented alongside expository science texts can have a number of positive effects for instruction, including facilitating engagement, arousing interest, and improving understanding. However, because students harbor expectations about which contexts are likely to support better understanding, the mere presence of graphics also has the…

This study examined age differences in young people's understanding of evolution theory in secondary school. A second aim of this study was to propose a new coding scheme that more accurately described students' conceptual understanding about evolutionary theory. We argue that coding schemes adopted in previous research may have overestimated…

We explore the initial characterization of the pedagogical content knowledge of four, in-service, Colombian pre-university secondary education physics teachers on the concept of electric field. Two of them teach the content in English as a second language. The aim of the study was to obtain an image of the participants' teaching of electric field…

The tension between mandated curricula and students' interests is evident throughout the history of science education. Societal expectations for student learning often lead to standards and curricula that leave little room for students to explore their own individual interests. Occasionally, however, an event can capture the interest of so many…

The aim of this study was to identify the content of secondary Science curriculum excluded in teaching and learning activities, the reasons behind the omission and its impact on students' learning in the context of Bangladesh. This study used qualitative methodology. Eight teachers were selected and interviewed to investigate what they excluded…

Teaching and learning evolution is challenging. Biology education research shows that the underlying evolutionary concepts are poorly understood among students. This prevents a meaningful understanding of the central biological concepts. The instructional format of self-explanation prompts seems to be promising to respond to these difficulties.…

To provide a good understanding of many abstract concepts in the field of electricity above that of their students is often a major challenge for secondary school teachers. Many educational researchers promote conceptual learning as a teaching approach that can help teachers to achieve this goal. In this paper, we present Physlet-based materials…

It is now widely accepted, and indeed emphasized in the Next Generation Science Standards, that science education should encompass scientific practice as well as science content. By participating in an intellectual community engaged in the broad range of activities that constitute scientific inquiry, rather than simply mastering isolated science…

Although the concept of "rural" is difficult to define, rural science education provides the possibility for learning centered upon a strong connection to the local community. Rural American adolescents tend to be more religious than their urban counterparts and less accepting of evolution than their non-rural peers. Because the status…

Understanding the mechanisms of increasing the number of physics teachers educated per year at institutions with thriving physics teacher preparation programs may inspire and support other institutions in building thriving programs of their own. The Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC), led by the American Physical Society (APS) and the…

In this paper educators provide a valuable feedback in the use of concept maps in secondary education. More specifically their use in teaching dyslexic students Science. Almost 100 educators replied to an online questionnaire after they studied a set of evaluation sheets provided to them based on concept maps. We will begin with a brief…