This exploratory study outlines the perceptions of four Muslim graduate students regarding Islam and its influence on their approach to the teaching and learning of science. All of the four interviewees were enrolled in science related programmes at a Midwestern US university. The interview responses were evaluated both within the frame of the…

This qualitative, sociocultural study examines how teacher preparation programs may have deliberate impact on science reform by unearthing the complex layers of diversity inherent in the contextual reality of education. This study was conducted in one of the largest school districts in the Southeastern United States, serving a predominately…

This study aims to examine the affect of the degree of religiosity of student teachers, and their nationalism and scientific background on their perception of the nature of science (NOS). First year Arab and Jewish religiously observant, traditional and secular students in Israel (101 in number) with different scientific backgrounds participated…

Studies across fields such as science education, health education, health behavior, and curriculum studies identify a persistent gap between the aims of the school curriculum and its impact on students' thinking and acting about the real-life decisions that affect their lives. The present study presents a different story from this predominant…

Vision II school science is often stated to be a democratic and inclusive form of science education. But what characterizes the subject who fits into the Vision II school science? Who is the desirable student and who is constructed as ill-fitting? This article explores discourses that structure the Vision II science classroom, and how different…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the potential of using stories about diverse scientists to broaden primary students' images of scientists and scientific work. Stories featuring scientists from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds (i.e., physical ability, gender, ethnicity) were presented to 11 grade one students over a 15-week…

Focusing on the interplay of context and language, this study examined a group of high school students and their mentors' use of language during a robotics competition. This informal setting allowed us to gain insights into the mediation and manifestation of power within the group. Using critical discourse analysis of competition transcripts and…

The present research aims at pinpointing differences in spontaneous and non-spontaneous mental models of water cycle conceptions of two 4th grade student groups: the Jewish residents of a small provincial town and a group of students from an indigenous Bedouin community. Students' conceptions were elicited using the Repertory Grid technique as…

This paper is a response to Maria Andree's paper. Andree tells in the paper how mistakes in practical lessons may be critical events to change students' attitudes in regard science. While traditionally mistakes in practical lessons could obligate students to repeat the experiment in order to get the "right result" in the paper we have a good…

This is a study of teaching about the human body. It is based on transcribed material from interviews with 15-year-old students and teachers about their experiences of sex education and from recordings of classroom interactions during a dissection. The analysis is focused on the relationship between what students are supposed to learn about the…

This article is a personal history of the Science and Mathematics Education Center (SMEC) in Perth, Australia, during my time there as a student. I make use of narratives to express what I see as the impact on my professional practice of having attended SMEC. I am grateful to SMEC, but what is being grateful really? In this paper I try to…

The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of requisite teacher knowledge for teaching lower-track science students. Using video accounts, student focus groups, and teacher reflections researchers documented missteps, dead-ends, and unfruitful trajectories informed by the teacher's incoming knowledge and compared these instances to…

This article is a response to Pike and Dunne's research. The focus of their analysis is on reflections of studying science post-16. Pike and Dunne draw attention to under enrollments in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, in particular, in the field of physics, chemistry and biology in the United Kingdom. We provide an…

In the United States today, urban schools serve the majority of high-poverty and high minority populations including large numbers of Hispanic students. While many Hispanic students perform below grade level in middle school science, the science teaching community as a whole is lacking elements of diversity as teachers struggle to meet the needs…

In this paper I discuss the tension created by religion and science in one student's understanding of knowledge and truth by exploring two questions: "How do individuals accommodate their religious beliefs with their understanding of science?" and "How does religious knowledge interact with scientific knowledge to construct meaning?" A…