In Sweden, the policy of national testing was expanded in 2013 by introducing national tests in science in the sixth grade. The aim of this study is to contribute knowledge about the enactment of this policy of national testing by investigating students' experiences of taking the tests. Students were interviewed about their experiences of taking…

One of the objectives of the South African science curriculum is to provide equal access to science for students from all backgrounds. However, this goal remains elusive as many students, particularly those from low socio-economic backgrounds, continue to perform poorly in science. One of the reasons for the persistent differential achievement in…

Students learning a defined subject only perform by learning of thinking based on the concepts forming that subjects. Otherwise, students may move away from the scientific meaning of concepts and may fall into conceptual errors. Students' conceptual errors affect their following learning and cause them resist change. It is possible to prevent this…

This article provides an overview of the main findings for the countries of the UK from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2015, where science was the major focus. The nature of the tests, the key findings and how they might be interpreted are discussed--in…

Recent reports calling for change in undergraduate biology education have resulted in the redesign of many introductory biology courses. Reports on one common change to course structure, the active-learning environment, have placed an emphasis on student preparation, noting that the positive outcomes of active learning in the classroom depend…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of REACT strategy developed in relation to "Particulate nature of the matter" subject on academic achievement and conceptual change. This study was accompanied by pre-test-post-test control group design. The academic achievement and concept test, which were developed, was distributed…

So far, there has been no evaluation of the 'STEM potential' (i.e., the potential to engage in science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics professions) of Swiss students at the end of their compulsory education. In the current study we use data from the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment study to assess the STEM potential…

A non-experimental descriptive and correlational design was used to examine the "notion of the nature of scientific model, atom achievement and correlation between the two" held by a total sample of 76 prospective science teachers. "Students' Understanding of Models in Science" scale was utilized to evaluate the views of the…

In this study, it was tried to investigate the effect of the augmented reality cards on teaching. For this purpose, the effect of the reality cards designed for astronomy subjects on students' attitudes towards astronomy, the effect on academic achievement and the opinions of students about reality cards were evaluated. Mixed method was used as…

We investigate the relationship between teacher licensure test scores and student test achievement and high school course-taking. We focus on three subject/grade combinations--middle school math, ninth-grade algebra and geometry, and ninth-grade biology--and find evidence that a teacher's basic skills test scores are modestly predictive of student…

Physics is generally regarded as difficult and uninteresting. The teaching of physics with the use of an appropriate teaching strategy can improve students' achievement. The aim of this research is to examine the effect of the modified Know-Want-Learn (mKWL) strategy on primary school students' achievement in physics. The Know-Want-Learn (KWL)…

In a large-scale longitudinal study, 11-year-old schoolchildren were given a control-of-variables task, and their scores in this were related to their progress in learning about science at school over the next 3 years. The aim of the control-of-variables task was to measure children's understanding that in a properly controlled scientific…

While access to computers, other technologies, and cyber-enabled resources that could be leveraged for enhancing student learning in science is increasing, generally it has been found that teachers use technology more for administrative purposes or to support traditional instruction. This use of technology, especially to support traditional…

Multiple-choice (MC) items that are constructed such that distractors target known misconceptions for a particular domain provide useful diagnostic information about student misconceptions (Herrmann-Abell & DeBoer, 2011, 2014; Sadler, 1998). Item response theory models can be used to examine misconceptions distractor-driven multiple-choice…

This paper reports on research undertaken in a middle-class Australian school. The focus of the research was on the relationship between gender and students' engagement with high school chemistry. Achievement data from many OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] countries suggest that middle-class girls are achieving equally…