Scientific literacy reflects "a broad and functional understanding of science for general education purposes" (DeBoer, [DeBoer, G. E., 2000], p. 594). Herein, we present the ongoing development of the Scientific Literacy Assessment (SLA), a work-in-progress measure to assess middle school students' (ages 11-14) scientific literacy.…

The study aimed to investigate whether the impact of mood state on children's choice of expressive strategies (literal and non-literal content and abstract) varies as a function of mood valence, age and topic to be drawn. The sample (N?=?96) consisted of four groups of children aged 5, 7, 9 and 11years, respectively. Half of the children in…

This article discusses why researchers and educators might choose to seek children's perspectives. It also highlights some of the key considerations when seeing children as having the right to contribute to decisions that affect them. The article draws on findings from a study that used pedagogically oriented methods for researching three-…

In 2009 and 2010, a large group of Finnish children and adolescents got narcolepsy after the vaccination campaign to prevent swine flu pandemic. A sample of children and adolescents who had gotten narcolepsy after 2009 participated in this study. The purpose of this research was to analyse how narcolepsy that developed from the swine flu…

This study examines the ways in which teachers provide students with written scaffolds in assessment tasks and the impact of these on students' abilities to demonstrate a core disciplinary proficiency--constructing evidence-based explanations. Data include 76 assessment tasks designed by 33 science teachers and 707 samples of student work. We…

With the demand for quality quantitative instruments in the field of science education rising, additional measures of currently unassessed affective variables need to be constructed. In this study, we discuss the survey creation and evaluation process of the STEM Awareness Community Survey (SACS) through an application of Liu's (Liu, X.,…

Elementary science standards emphasize that students should develop conceptual understanding of the characteristics and life cycles of plants (National Research Council, 2012), yet few studies have focused on early learners' reasoning about seed structure and function. The purpose of this study is twofold: to (a) examine third-grade…

In today's world of information explosion, independent lifelong self-regulated learning (SRL) is becoming a necessity. However, opportunities in schools to experience such learning modes are relatively rare. This long-term explorative field study examined students' SRL of science. Changes in students' self-reported and enacted SRL…

Digital storytelling, which combines the art of storytelling with a variety of digital audio, video, and multimedia images, has been increasingly used as a language learning tool as research studies have shown it to be effective in enhancing the development of language skills as well as related language learning skills, such as autonomy,…

As mobile devices with wireless access become more readily available, learning delivered via mobile devices of all types must be designed to ensure successful learning. This paper first examines three questions related to the design of mobile learning: 1) what mobile learning (m-learning) guidelines can be identified in the current literature, 2)…

The Internet has become one of the most common educational tools used by teachers and students in social studies education worldwide. Although there are extensive studies on how the Internet is used by teachers as an instructional tool in social studies classes, less work has been done to explain how students themselves use and interact with…

Along with advancing mobile technologies and proliferating mobile devices and applications, mobile learning research has gained great momentum in recent years. While there have been review articles summarizing past research, studies identifying mobile learning research priorities based on experts' latest insights have been lacking. This study…

A slavery simulation that took place as part of a field trip for students of a Hartford junior high academy led a father to file a human rights suit against the school district, and for one official to comment that simulations of complex and tragic human phenomena have "no place in an educational system." In light of these conclusions,…

There is a need for more comprehensive assessments of young children's emerging print knowledge. Traditional letter and numeral identification assessments score children's responses as either correct or incorrect and this approach can underestimate what children know. The present study tested an assessment scale that scored three- and…

Early literacy skill development at the preschool level is critical for later success in learning to read and other reading-related activities. Professional development (PD), specifically coaching via performance feedback delivered through email, may provide a viable alternative to other types of trainings (e.g. workshops) that are often…