This study evaluated recent advances in learning progressions for the concept of matter (LPCM) and explored trends by reviewing the literature on the topic published between 2005 and 2021. A total of 21 studies were reviewed. Fifteen studies were devoted to developing LPCM of varying spans and grain sizes. There were six follow-up studies based on…

Many research studies have shown that lower-secondary school students' scientific literacy depends on their understanding of corresponding scientific concepts. Therefore, it is of great significance to model and assess students' conceptual understanding in learning specific scientific concepts, because it can reflect and diagnose students'…

This article outlines the results from the research on primary and secondary school pupils' conceptualisation of microorganisms. It has been observed from the past few decades that one conceptual model is dominant, in which microorganisms are considered harmful, disease-causing and living in dirty environments. These misconceptions are only likely…

Idealizations are omnipresent in science. However, to date, science education research has paid surprisingly little attention to the use of idealizations in fostering students' model competence and understanding of the nature of science (NOS). The starting point for the theoretical reflection in this paper is that insufficient consideration of…

Electricity is a very important concept in learning Physics. Mastering this concept can make learning Physics meaningful and relatable to real life problems. However, literature indicates that students have poor conceptual understanding of concepts about electricity. The current research aims to improve Form 5 (aged 17 years) students'…

We present a case study of a conversation between ourselves and an artificial intelligence-based chatbot ChatGPT. We asked the chatbot to respond to a basic physics question that will be familiar to most physics teachers: 'A teddy bear is thrown into the air. What is its acceleration in the highest point?' The chatbot's responses, while…

This study reports on a case study about multimodal work in a primary physics classroom focusing on forces. Previous research reports that students benefit from multimodal work in science classrooms. Yet, few systematic studies have been performed to reveal how students represent their experiences and ideas of science phenomena over time within…

In collaboration with educators and researchers, we created an online resource called Phase Separation 101 to help undergraduate students understand the basics of liquid-liquid phase separation, an emerging and complex concept in cell biology for which visual resources are still scarce. This work presents the workflow and visual communication…

Electricity and magnetism are closely related phenomena with a well-known symmetry found in Maxwell equations. An essential part of any electricity and magnetism course includes the analysis of different field source distributions through Gauss's and Ampere's laws to compute and interpret different physical quantities, such as electric flux,…

Microteaching is a significant way to prepare pre-service teachers to overcome specific challenges in a natural classroom environment. It is widely accepted that pre-service science teachers gain pedagogical benefits from microteaching activities. Furthermore, microteaching enhances the conceptual understanding of the presenter on the related…

This article describes how using a variety of differentiation strategies, such as listening to stories, visualizing scenarios, and performing tactile activities, can help fourth-grade students to conceive of and express examples of energy transfer.

Much of physics involves the construction and interpretation of equations. Research on physics students' understanding and application of mathematics has employed Sherin's symbolic forms or Fauconnier and Turner's conceptual blending as analytical frameworks. However, previous symbolic forms analyses have commonly treated students' in-context…

Despite its crucial importance in physics, there are not many studies focusing on student difficulties and teaching strategies related to the (1D) wave equation in the PER literature. In order to contribute to fill this gap, we conducted a study with university students which focused on specific aspects that are crucial for understanding this…

Evolution is foundational to understanding biology, yet learners at all stages have incomplete and incorrect ideas that persist beyond graduation. Contextual features of prompts (e.g., taxon of organism, acquisition vs. loss of traits, etc.) have been shown to influence both the learning process and the ideas students express in explanations of…

An understanding of structure-function relationships in proteins is essential for modern biochemical studies. The integration of common freely accessible bioinformatics tools available online with the knowledge of protein-engineering tools provide a fundamental understanding of the application of protein structure-function for biochemical…