Cross-domain analysis was used to examine changes in two attitudinal dimensions: students' attitudes towards science and attitudes about the utility of science over the middle school and high school years. A sample of 444 students was selected from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth. The results show that the overall trend for students'…

Many preservice primary teachers initially have a low self-efficacy, or belief in their ability to teach science, but well-designed science education courses can produce significant positive changes in efficacy beliefs. However, the extent to which the belief changes are durable, or maintained over time, is yet to be established. The purpose of…

Due to the implementation of a 9-year integrated curriculum scheme in Taiwan, research on team teaching and web-based technology appears to be urgent. The purpose of this study was incorporated web-assisted learning with team teaching in seventh-grade science classes. The specific research question concerned student performance and attitudes about…

This paper reviews the remarkably similar experiences of school science reported by high school students in Sweden, England, and Australia. It compares student narratives from interpretive studies by Lindahl, by Osborne and Collins, and by Lyons, identifying core themes relating to critical contemporary issues in science education. These themes…

Both in Europe and the United States there is a growing interest in design research. One example is the design and validation of topic-oriented teaching-learning sequences. This research may be said to have two objectives. One is to design and test "useful products", such as teachers guides and study material for students, which may be put into…

This descriptive study provides a comparison of existing high school marine science curricula and instructional practices used by nine teachers across seven schools districts in Florida and their students' level of scientific literacy, as defined by the national science standards and benchmarks. To measure understandings of science concepts and…

Although the term "scientific literacy" has been increasingly used in recent years to characterise the aim of school science education, there is still considerable uncertainty about its meaning and implications for the curriculum. A major national project in England, "Twenty First Century Science", is evaluating the feasibility of a more flexible…

This article is concerned with the meaning and legitimacy of the view that the secondary science curriculum can be given a vocational emphasis, and with a current attempt to create such a curriculum. Although this perspective on the science curriculum has a long history, in recent decades it has received little attention. This article examines…

As part of a long-term research study to enhance science learning, this paper reports on an exploratory study aimed at identifying initial beliefs and practices of a group of teachers and students (Years 4-6) in Australia when the students engaged with multiple representations of the same science concepts. There is growing recognition in science…

This paper describes an attempt at evaluating a potentially critical "detail" of teaching practice; that is, using a particular diagram to illustrate the imaging role of a converging lens. This "basic" diagram has been designed to contribute to help students overcome the well-known "travelling image" syndrome. We conducted a comparative study with…

College students often experience difficulties in solving physics problems. These difficulties largely result from a lack of conceptual understanding of the topic. The processes of conceptual learning reflect the nature of the causal reasoning process. Two major causal reasoning methods are the covariational and the mechanism-based approaches.…

While the traditional meaning of connected knowledge is valuable in some school subjects, it does not address the main activities of knowledge acquisition in subjects such as physics and mathematics. The goal of this article is to analyze the relationships between the concepts "learning for understanding" and "connected knowledge", a central theme…

A recent paper by Yilmaz, Boone, and Andersen (2004) is criticized on four grounds. First, the paper does not have adequate definitions of "urban" and "sub"urban". Second, the interpretation of these terms for Ankara does not reveal the particular socio-economic circumstances existing there. Third, no clear grounds are established for the…

This paper discusses the findings of an evaluative and interpretive study into the potential of in-service education to improve science education in Swaziland. Short-term and long-term effects of an in-service intervention are evaluated in terms of changes in classroom processes. The teaching approach of participating teachers has been monitored…

Primary teacher preparation courses to need support students in developing not only science content knowledge, but also pedagogical knowledge appropriate to the effective translation and representation of subject matter for learners in classrooms. In the case of the generalist primary trainee, this constitutes a considerable challenge. This study…