This study explores the implementation of peer assessment with a group of students studying physics at Advanced level in a post-secondary school in Malta. The study that draws on action research methodology looks at how the views of students regarding peer assessment evolve as they engage with peer assessment. The research involved the actual…

This paper reports a study on South African learners' knowledge about scientific inquiry using the Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI) Questionnaire. The sample consisted of 105 grade 11 learners from 7 schools across the socio-economic spectrum in a South African city. A rubric for scoring the VASI Questionnaire was developed and refined…

The ability to build arguments is a crucial skill and a central educational goal in all school subjects including science as it enables students to formulate reasoned opinions and thus to cope with the increasing complexity of knowledge. In the present cross-sectional study, we examined the domain-specificity of argumentative writing in science by…

Even if national and international assessments are designed to be comparable, subsequent psychometric analyses often reveal differential item functioning (DIF). Central to achieving comparability is to examine the presence of DIF, and if DIF is found, to investigate its sources to ensure differentially functioning items that do not lead to bias.…

The current study compared different learners' static and dynamic mental images of unseen scientific species and processes in relation to their spatial ability. Learners were classified into verbal, visual and schematic. Dynamic images were classified into: appearing/disappearing, linear-movement, and rotation. Two types of scientific…

This paper presents the findings of the qualitative component of a combined methods research study that explores a range of individual and school factors that influence the uptake of chemistry and physics in post-compulsory study in England. The first phase involves using the National Pupil Database to provide a sampling frame to identify four…

Invasive species are one of the main threats to biodiversity worldwide. Even though they are identified and recognized as such by the Portuguese law, the majority of the population is not yet aware of this problem. Aiming to increase awareness about biological invasions among young students, a workshop on Invasive Plant Species was organized at…

This study explored and documented students' responses to opportunities for collective knowledge building and collaboration in a problem-solving process within complex environmental challenges and pressing issues with various dimensions of knowledge and skills. Middle-school students ("n" =?16; age 14) and high-school students…

We examine teachers' experiences of a major reform of the school science curriculum for 14-16-year olds in England. This statutory reform enhances the range of available science courses and emphasises the teaching of socio-scientific issues and the nature of science, alongside the teaching of canonical science knowledge. This paper examines…

One of the solutions implemented by schools for conducting value-based environmental education (EE) is outsourcing: allocating external environmental organizations that develop and conduct EE programmes. This study addressed such a programme--the Green Council Programme (GCP)--developed and implemented in schools by the Israeli Society for…

In this article, we present a valid and reliable instrument which measures the attitude of in-service and pre-service primary teachers toward teaching science, called the Dimensions of Attitude Toward Science (DAS) Instrument. Attention to the attitudes of primary teachers toward teaching science is of fundamental importance to the…

The 24-item Physics Metacognition Inventory was developed to measure physics students' metacognition for problem solving. Items were classified into eight subcomponents subsumed under two broader components: knowledge of cognition and regulation of cognition. The students' scores on the inventory were found to be reliable and related to…

Children's understandings of the shape and relative sizes of the Earth, Sun and Moon have been extensively researched and in a variety of ways. Much is known about the confusions which arise as young people try to grasp ideas about the world and our neighbouring celestial bodies. Despite this, there remain uncertainties about the conceptual…

This study explored undergraduate students' understanding of the chemistry topic of thermodynamics using a 4-tier diagnostic instrument, comprising 30 questions, and follow-up interviews. An additional objective of the study was to assess the utility of the 4-tier instrument for use in studies on alternative conceptions (ACs) as there has…

The paper explores the relationship of the global and the local assessment discourses as expressed by Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test items and school-based examinations, respectively. To this end, the paper compares PISA test items related to living systems and the context of life, health, and environment, with Greek…