Jordan has participated in international large-scale assessments (LSAs) since 1991 and in most of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS) as well as the Programme for International Student Assessments (PISA). After a short description of education system and policy-making context in the country, this article provides an…

Plagiarism is a commonly cited problem in higher education, especially in scientific writing and assignments for science courses. Students may not intentionally plagiarize, but may instead be confused about what proper source attribution entails. Much of this confusion likely stems from high school, either from lack of or inconsistent instruction…

Higher education policies are increasingly focused on graduate learning outcomes, which infer an emphasis on, and deep understanding of, curriculum development across degree programs. As disciplinary influences are known to shape teaching and learning activities, research situated in disciplinary contexts is useful to further an understanding of…

Considering the impact of textbooks on learning, this study set out to assess representations of the nature of scientific knowledge in Turkish 9th grade biology textbooks. To this end, the ten most commonly used 9th grade biology textbooks were analyzed. A qualitative research approach was utilized and the textbooks were analyzed using…

Chemical processing industry is progressively focusing their research activities and product placements in the areas of Grand Challenges (or Global Megatrends) such as mobility, energy, communication, or health care and food. Innovation in all these fields requires solving high complex problems, rapid product development as well as dealing with…

The purpose of this study is to examines the relationship between the communicative approach of classroom talk and the modes of representations used by science teachers. Based on video data from two physics classrooms in Singapore, a recurring pattern in the relationship was observed as the teaching sequence of a lesson unfolded. It was found that…

We explored whether existing curricula can be adapted to increase students' skills at comprehending and learning from diagrams using an intervention delivered by regular middle-school teachers in intact classrooms. Ninety-two teachers in three states implemented our modified materials over six curricular units from two publishers: "Holt"…

Advertising is everywhere: on television, on the internet, on billboards and in print media. It is important to be able to understand and process the advertising messages that we are bombarded with daily. Advertising frequently uses scientific information to make a product appear more credible or to underscore specific features or benefits.…

This study describes how student unit assessment data helped support ongoing curriculum revisions in the Baltimore City School District. This project is situated in the STEM Achievement in Baltimore Elementary Schools (SABES) project, which is a National Science Foundation funded multi-year Math Science Partnership between the Johns Hopkins…

This paper describes outcomes of a series of teacher professional development grants that put teachers in the driver's seat of their own professional learning. Teachers used grant funds to build a team, select a focus for their teams' professional growth, and take actions that they felt would be most effective in helping them improve their…

Background and purpose: To date, there has been little research on the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) for delivering a mobile technology-supported science curriculum. To address this, a TPD model for a science curriculum supported by mobile technology was developed and evaluated in this paper. The study reported focuses on the…

Purpose of this research is to examine effect of science teaching enriched with technological practices on attitude levels of secondary school 7th grade students towards science course. Execution step of the research was performed on 7th grade students attending to a government secondary school in Turkey in the academic year of 2015 and completed…

Grant-funded curriculum development efforts can substantially impact practice and research in science education. Therefore, understanding the sometimes-unintended consequences of changes in grant priorities is crucial. Using the case of two large funding agencies in the United States, the current portfolio review provides insight into these…

Science teaching and learning in the United States are at a pivotal point. "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC 2012b) and the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS"; NGSS Lead States 2013) shift science educators' focus from simply teaching science ideas to helping students figure out phenomena and…

An important objective in science education is the acquisition of science process skills (SPS) by the students. Therefore, science coursebooks, among the main resources of elementary science curricula, are to convey accurate SPS. This study is a qualitative study based on the content analysis of the science coursebooks used at middle schools. In…