The purpose of this article is to describe a model for teaching introductory biology coursework within the Vision and Change framework (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2011). The intent of the new model is to transform instruction by adopting an active, student-centered, and inquiry-based pedagogy consistent with Vision and…

Background/Context: As increasing attention is paid to preparing students to succeed in school, the development and adoption of research-based curricula have become progressively more important. However, many curricular designs lack a basis in scientific evidence; research and curricular design are frequently treated as two separate enterprises.…

A nationwide survey of the undergraduate physical chemistry course was conducted to investigate the depth and breadth of content that is covered, how content is delivered, how student understanding is assessed, and the experiences and beliefs of instructors. The survey was administered to instructors of physical chemistry (N = 331) at American…

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) is a buzzword in America (Ames, 2013; Woodruff, 2013). With recent pushes from the federal government (Obama, 2013) the educational landscape is changing, with an increased emphasis on STEM (Noddings, 2013; Obama, 2013). However, a clear definition of who teaches each aspect of STEM does not exist…

On December 2-3, 2014, the Space Studies Board and the Board on Science Education of the National Research Council held a workshop on the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) education program--"Sharing the Adventure with the Student." The workshop brought together representatives of the space science and science education communities…

This study aims to identify constructivist learner roles in acquisitions in the secondary education chemistry curriculum of the province of Québec/Canada. This research used document analysis as a qualitative research method. According to our findings; the "learner roles" in curriculum correspond with the "student roles"…

This ethnographic research examines how children enact developing understandings in science through multiple interactions. Grounded in sociocultural theoretical frameworks, we consider learning to be a social, cultural practice, with understandings as co-constructed between participants through talk and in interactions. With these underpinning…

The Northern Ireland Primary Curriculum, formerly a highly prescribed, content-rich programme in which science was a discrete subject, was revised in 2007 and made statutory for all year groups by 2009. One of the most significant changes has been the amalgamation of science and technology with geography and history under a single area of learning…

Well before the Next Generation Science Standards became final last month, teachers in pockets around the country were already exploring the vision for science education espoused by the document and bringing elements of that approach to the classroom. The new standards call for bringing greater depth to K-12 students' understanding of the subject…

Living in an unpredictable and ever changing society demands from its' citizens the development of complex competencies that challenges school, education and curriculum. PARSEL, a pan-European Project related to science education, emerges as a contribution to curricular development as it proposes a set of teaching-learning materials (modules) in…

In this paper, I describe the strong and reciprocal relations between the emergence of the specialized expert in the natural sciences and the establishment of science education, in early Modern Greece. Accordingly, I show how science and public education interacted within the Greek state from its inception in the early 1830, to the first decade of…

Mikhail Geraskov is a distinguished Bulgarian educator from the first half of the twentieth century, who developed the scientific foundations of didactics and methodology of training. His work contributed a lot to the development of the Bulgarian pedagogy. The subject of scientific research is didactical conceptions and methodological conceptions…

This study examines how an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning creates teachable moments that can foster conceptual understanding in students, and how teachers capitalize upon these moments. Six elementary school teachers were videotaped as they implemented an integrated inquiry-based science and literacy curriculum in their…

The Curriculum for Excellence and new National Qualifications offer innovative reform, based on widely supported ideas and aims, for Scottish preschool, primary and secondary education levels. "Objectives and syllabuses" for science are replaced by "experiences and outcomes". Most strikingly, central prescription makes way for…

Evolution offers an intellectually satisfying and extremely well-supported explanation for the diversity of life in the natural world, its similarities and differences, how changes occur and how new life forms have developed. There are plenty of reasons to anticipate the teaching of evolution with exhilaration. In recent years, the issue of…