The study investigated the relationship of high school students' understandings about nature of science (NOS) aspects and their argumentation skills in relation to two controversial socioscientific issues. The study was conducted in five schools selected from different geographical areas in Beirut, Lebanon. Participants were 219 grade 11 students.…

The purpose of this mixed-method study was to investigate the changes in high school students' perceptions of fluency with innovative technologies (IT) and the levels of students' scientific inquiry abilities as a result of engaging students in long-term scientific research projects focusing on community-based environmental issues. Over a span of…

Assessing the credibility of evidence in complex, socio-scientific problems is of paramount importance. However, there is little discussion in the science education literature on this topic and on how students can be supported in developing such skills. In this article, we describe an instructional design framework, which we call the Credibility…

Explanations of the role of analogies in learning science at a cognitive level are made in terms of creating bridges between new information and students' prior knowledge. In this empirical study of learning with analogies in an 11th grade chemistry class, we explore an alternative explanation at the "social" level where analogy shapes classroom…

This study investigated the conceptual pathways of 19 Grade 11 introductory chemistry students (age 16-17) as they participated in a multirepresentational instruction on the particulate nature of matter (PNM). This study was grounded in contemporary conceptual change theory, in particular, research on students' conceptual pathways that focuses on…

This study reports on our steps toward achieving a conceptually coherent and empirically validated learning progression for carbon cycling in socio-ecological systems. It describes an iterative process of designing and analyzing assessment and interview data from students in upper elementary through high school. The product of our development…

Assessments associated with learning progressions are designed to provide diagnostic information about the level and nature of student understanding. Valid interpretations of such diagnoses are only possible when students consistently express the ideas associated with a single learning progression level. Latent class analysis was employed to…

The aims of this study were to examine self-efficacy and other motivation variables among high school science students (n = 502); to determine the degree to which each of the four hypothesized sources of self-efficacy makes an independent contribution to students' science self-efficacy beliefs; to examine possible differences between life,…

Our main goal in this study was to explore whether the use of models in molecular genetics instruction in high school can contribute to students' understanding of concepts and processes in genetics. Three comparable groups of 11th and 12th graders participated: The control group (116 students) was taught in the traditional lecture format, while…

In the literature, learners' cognitive development is mainly discussed with respect to changes in learners' content-dependent knowledge (conceptual change or growth). Additional dimensions of time and complexity may also be taken into account to describe cognitive processes in at least three dimensions. We discuss these three dimensions of…