The concepts and instruments required for the teaching and learning of geometric optics are introduced in the didactic process without a proper didactic transposition. This claim is secured by the ample evidence of both wide- and deep-rooted alternative concepts on the topic. Didactic transposition is a theory that comes from a reflection on the…

In this article, questions of public education in both environmental issues and science, more broadly, are examined in an effort to respond to Richard Aldrich's call for historians of education to use their skills and understanding both to inform the present and to shape a more enlightened future. In particular, the lives and work of three women…

This Proceedings document begins with the text of the keynote by Dr. Michelle Caswell, followed by seven papers, representing a sampling of the symposium presentations from the 2022 Digitizing Hidden Collections (DHC) Symposium, a capstone event for the Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives program. This program was funded by the…

Symbolic expressions are essential resources for producing knowledge, yet they are a source of learning difficulties in chemistry education. This study aims to employ social semiotics to analyse the symbolic representation of chemistry from two complementary perspectives, referred to here as contextual (i.e., historical) and functional. First, the…

Many of the current issues facing humans are geologic in nature. Whether the issue is mitigating the impact of geologic hazards, reducing air and water pollution, managing the energy of mineral resources, or minimizing the impact of anthropogenic global climate change, we require a geosciences-literate population. This is crucial to developing…

The aim of this study is to present pre-service biology teachers with reading texts about the research of Van Helmont and Joseph Priestley relate to the subject of photosynthesis, for their familiarization with the processual and contextual aspects of science and their understanding of the nature of science, and to reveal the extent to which these…

Based on previous international studies, a content analysis scheme has been designed and used from the perspective of culture to study the history of science (HOS) in science textbooks. Nineteen sets of Chinese science textbooks have been analyzed. It has been found that there are noticeable changes in the quantity, content, layout, presentation,…

The purpose of this study was to reveal beliefs of prospective teachers about "science" and "science history." The qualitative research approach was employed in the study. The study group consisted of 150 prospective teachers. A form developed by the researcher was used for data collection. The form consisted of open-ended…

Helping students understand that the scientific community's claims change through time, sometimes radically, allows them to develop a well-grounded sense of the "nature of science." Learning to reason about how scientific claims come to be accepted, and later refuted, is important for understanding the tentative nature of scientific…

Physical Chemistry's birth was fraught with controversy, a controversy about electrolyte solution chemistry which has much to say about how scientific knowledge originates, matures, and responds to challenges. This has direct implications for the way our students are educated in physical chemistry in particular and science in general. The…

British scientist John Dalton (1766-1844), French scientist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778-1850), and Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro (1776-1856) are familiar to many chemistry students. Such students may understand the importance of Dalton's atomic theory, model how Gay-Lussac's law relates the pressure and the temperature of a gas, and use…

In a deep and dark corner of space, a cataclysm loomed. Two cosmic nemeses circled one another, locked in a macabre dance of death. Unfolding over millennia, the deadly waltz began leisurely enough. But with the dance came radiation and the energy loss that it implies. Orbit after orbit, the distance between the two protagonists shrank as their…

Science education involves learning about phenomena at three levels: concrete (facts and generalizations), conceptual (concepts and theories), and metaconceptual (epistemology) (Snir et al. in "J Sci Educ Technol" 2(2):373-388, 1993). Models are key components in science, can help build conceptual understanding, and may also build…

In my contribution I would like to offer three different examples: the activities of the association "Förderverein Hamburger Sternwarte", science education in the "astronomy workshop", and the teaching of the history of science and technology for university students.

Here the paper provides a historical and philosophical analysis of the development of electromagnetic theory in physics teaching for the benefit of scientific literacy. The analysis is described by the paradigms offered by Kuhn. A number of scientists' work in electromagnetic theory which is embedded in the tension between engaging in…