We present the development of a construct map addressing the reason for the seasons, as a subset of a larger learning progression on celestial motion. Five classes of 8th grade students (N?=?38) participated in a 10-day curriculum on the seasons. We revised a hypothetical seasons construct map using a Rasch model analysis of students'…

Achievement goal theory distinguishes between mastery goals (the goals of developing competence) and performance goals (the goals of demonstrating competence) [Ames [1992] "Journal of Educational Psychology" 84: 261-271]. In this study, we employed this theory aiming to better understand why adolescents' motivation to learn science…

This article presents an empirical study on an initial learning progression of energy, a concept of central importance to the understanding of science. Learning progressions have been suggested as one vehicle to support the systematic and successful teaching of core science concepts. Ideally, a learning progression will provide teachers with a…

This study focuses on a professional development program for science teachers near or on American Indian reservations in Montana. This program was framed by culturally relevant pedagogy premises and was characterized by instructional strategies and content foci resulting from the intersection between three cultures: tribal, science teaching, and…

In recent years, science education has placed increasing importance on learners' mastery of scientific reasoning. This growing emphasis presents a challenge for both developers and users of assessments. We report on our effort around the conceptualization, development, and testing the validity of an assessment of students' ability to reason around…

This article provides an extended, comprehensive example of how teachers, schools, districts, and external factors (e.g., parental pressure and policy mandates) shape curriculum research in the U.S. It retrospectively examines how three different middle school curriculum units were implemented and scaled-up in a large, diverse school system. The…

This article reports on the collaboration of six states to study how simulation-based science assessments can become transformative components of multi-level, balanced state science assessment systems. The project studied the psychometric quality, feasibility, and utility of simulation-based science assessments designed to serve formative purposes…

This article is concerned with "commonsense science knowledge", the informally gained knowledge of the natural world that students possess prior to formal instruction in a scientific discipline. Although commonsense science has been the focus of substantial study for more than two decades, there are still profound disagreements about its nature…

This article presents an analysis of the longitudinal consequences of out-of-school science learning with a conceptual framework that connects the intentions of youth to their participation in science. The focus is on one girl's science activities in her home and hobby pursuits from fourth to seventh grade to create an empirical account of how…

This is a mix methods follow-up study in which we reconfirm the findings from an earlier study [Vedder-Weiss & Fortus [2011] "Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 48(2)", 199-216]. The findings indicate that adolescents' declining motivation to learn science, which was found in many previous studies [Galton [2009] "Moving to secondary school:…

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a comparative assessment of the achievement of students in many countries. In the present study, a rigorous independent evaluation was conducted of a representative sample of TIMSS science test items because item quality influences the validity of the scores used to inform…

There is a growing awareness that science education should center not just on knowledge acquisition but developing the foundation for lifelong learning. However, for intentional learning of science to occur in school, out of school, and after school, there needs to be a motivation to learn science. Prior research had shown that students'…

This study investigated whether a geospatial information technology (GIT)-supported science curriculum helped students in an urban middle school understand land use change (LUC) concepts and enhanced their spatial thinking. Five 8th grade earth and space science classes in an urban middle school consisting of three different ability level tracks…

This study demonstrates the potential for collaborative research among participants in local settings to effect positive change in urban settings characterized by diversity. It describes an interpretive case study of a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse eighth grade science classroom in an urban magnet school in order to explore…

This study examines the process by which system thinking perceptions develop within the context of a water cycle curriculum. Four junior high school students undergoing an especially designed inquiry-based intervention were closely observed before, during, immediately after, and 6 years after completing a year long systems-based learning program.…