The results of Romanian students at international comparative TIMSS and PISA tests have constantly proven to be unsatisfactory. The present paper aims at analyzing the school syllabi "Mathematics and Environment exploration", "Environmental Education" and "Natural Sciences" studied during primary education in Romania…

The aim of this study was to assess how the different aspects of nature of science (NOS) were represented in Finnish and Swedish upper secondary school chemistry textbooks. The dimensions of NOS were analyzed from five popular chemistry textbook series. The study provides a quantitative method for analysis of representations of NOS in chemistry…

This article presents an empirical study on an initial learning progression of energy, a concept of central importance to the understanding of science. Learning progressions have been suggested as one vehicle to support the systematic and successful teaching of core science concepts. Ideally, a learning progression will provide teachers with a…

We examine teachers' experiences of a major reform of the school science curriculum for 14-16-year olds in England. This statutory reform enhances the range of available science courses and emphasises the teaching of socio-scientific issues and the nature of science, alongside the teaching of canonical science knowledge. This paper examines…

Despite the expectation that all students should achieve high academic standards, content area instruction and English for speakers of other languages instruction for English language learners (ELLs) have traditionally been conceptualized as separate domains, resulting in educational inequities for ELLs. This is because effective instruction to…

This paper reports case studies of five Chinese secondary physics teachers' beliefs and instructional decisions in relation to inquiry-based teaching (IBT). It is part of a larger study intended to explore Chinese secondary physics teachers' beliefs and the ways in which their beliefs influence their classroom practices in the context of the…

This work describes three case studies conducted to address two major problems in the area of chemistry education research, the lack of reported psychometrics regarding instrument scores, and the need for well-characterized assessments to evaluate college chemistry curricula. The first case study describes a psychometric evaluation of the Colorado…

Institutions of higher learning are recently being held more accountable for the learning outcomes of their students. As such, universities have begun to actively measure and evaluate student learning and motivational outcomes in an effort to improve the successful outcomes of their students. To support this work, two studies were conducted to…

This study investigates how students' participation in a place-based science curriculum may influence their place attachment (dependence and identity). Participants attend an urban high school in Hawai'i and are members of different cultural institutions within the school. Students are either enrolled in an environmental science class within the…

State implementation of new standards (revising, adapting, and adopting new standards) is a significant undertaking. Such an effort at the state level requires extensive support, planning, and resources. Implementing new state standards also requires the support of multiple education leaders--governors, legislators, state departments of education,…

The new "Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas" is a big, comprehensive volume, carefully organized and heavily documented. It is the long-awaited product of the Committee on a Conceptual Framework for New K-12 Science Education Standards. As noted, it is a weighty document (more than 300…

Pseudoscience is a ubiquitous aspect of popular culture which constitutes a direct challenge to science, and by association, to science education. With the exception of politically influential pseudosciences trying to impose themselves on official curricula such as creationism, science education authorities and professional organisations seem…

The new Australian national science curriculum includes chemistry content at the primary level. Chemistry for young students is learning about changes in material stuff (matter) and, by implication, of what stuff is made. Pedagogy in this area needs to be guided by research if stepping stones to later learning of chemical ideas are to facilitate…

The separation of content between science, math, engineering, and technology education should not exist. Working with the relationship between these content areas enhances students' efforts to learn about the physical world--and the Bungee Jump offers one great way to go about it. This article describes an activity called the Egg Bungee Jump which…

The recruitment and training of scientists is an area of international concern. Much of the research and policy focus around this issue in the UK has been on how science is taught in schools and in particular on the structure of the school science curriculum. Much less attention has been devoted to the undergraduate student experience and the…