Newspapers often pick the most sensational, the most quirky, the most amusing science stories at the expense of other, perhaps more important, work. Despite offering a distorted window on science and technology, they can still be a useful launch pad for a classroom discussion or exercise. The key to using them is understanding what makes news and…

Albert Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." In order to develop his theories, he had to use his imagination and go beyond the facts generally accepted. He needed time to think and to imagine. Knowledge has a valuable part to play, but the current emphasis in England on end-of-key-stage assessments and…

Many children enjoy collecting items such as seashells, state quarters, and trading cards. Asking students to think about the ways in which similar items differ, how objects can be grouped by a common characteristic, and how groups can be subsets of a larger category leads to an understanding of fundamental mathematics and science concepts: sets,…

Explicit instruction of the nature of science (NOS) may be problematic if the NOS is portrayed as either a solely a cognitive or discursive endeavor, overlooking other aspects of epistemology, such as aesthetic ways of knowing. Here the aesthetic stance refers to individual's responses during reading as they create links between the text and their…

Federal educational policy, "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001", focused attention on America's education with conspicuous results. One aspect, "highly qualified classroom teacher" and "principal" (HQ), was taxing since states established individual accountability structures. The HQ impact and use of data-informed…

This study explored the characteristics of elementary science teachers who employ reforms-based practices. Particular attention was paid to the consistency of teachers' practices and their beliefs, the impact of professional development experiences on practices, and how teachers mitigated barriers to reforms-based instruction. Understanding how…

In an attempt to better support the mathematics and science learning experiences of preservice teacher candidates, a new course of study was created as part of a teacher certification program at a mid-Atlantic liberal art university. Entitled Investigations in Science and Mathematics, the two semester course adopted an integrated inquiry and…

Despite the positive outcomes for inquiry-based science education and recommendations from national and state standards, many teachers continue to rely upon more traditional methods of instruction This causal-comparative study was designed to determine the effects of the Inquiry Institute, a professional development program that is intended to…

Effective science teaching is vital for improved student learning outcomes in primary school science. Therefore, there is a need to tease out the components of effective science teaching to better understand what effective primary teachers do in their classrooms and why they do it. Four primary teachers, each nominated as effective science…

For decades, researchers have been convinced that one stereotypic image of scientists existed among children worldwide (Chambers, 1983; Chiang & Guo, 1996; Fung, 2002; Maoldomhnaigh & Hunt, 1988; Newton & Newton, 1992, 1998; She, 1998; Song, Pak, & Jang, 1992). This study, however, moves beyond that stereotypic image and examines…

Instructors of elementary science methods classes have long lamented the significant difficulties their students exhibit when trying to understand the many complexities of teaching science. As noted by some researchers and practicing teachers, preservice teachers often fail to developmentally function at desired levels with respect to…

Young children are naturally curious. The desire to question, hypothesize, explore, and investigate is part of their very being. This inherent sense of inquiry provides the foundation for science with young children, from inquisitive toddlers to curious third-graders. Early childhood educators can build on children's questions, eagerness, and…

In the past two decades, the role of language in the science curriculum has become prominent in science education literature. From a constructivist perspective, language mediates social interaction and meaning is constructed as learners interpret and reinterpret events through the lens of prior knowledge. This perspective applied to the science…

Elementary science teaching has been considered by recent researchers as a process in which students should be engaged in a variety of activities to develop science concepts, science process skills and scientific attitudes. From this perspective, hands-on activities are prominent in this approach because it leads the students to both reflect on…

New views of proficiency in K-8 science that highlight the importance of engaging children in the discourses and practices of science have raised the stakes for elementary teachers and the teacher educators who prepare them. In this paper, a framework for teaching science as argument is presented. The framework is advanced as a means of addressing…