Researchers have theorized that integrating authentic science activities into classrooms will help students learn how working scientists collaboratively construct knowledge, but few empirical studies have examined students' experiences with these types of activities. Utilizing data from a comparative, mixed-methods study, we considered how…

For students to be successful in school chemistry, a strong sense of self-efficacy is essential. Chemistry self-efficacy can be defined as students' beliefs about the extent to which they are capable of performing specific chemistry tasks. According to Bandura ("Psychol. Rev." 84:191-215, 1977), students acquire information about…

This study explored factors of students' mental states, including emotion, intention, internal mental representation, and external mental representation, which can affect their learning performance. In evaluating students' mental states during the science learning process and the relationship between mental states and learning…

In this paper, we argue for a more "systematic" approach for studying the relationship between classroom practices and scientific practices--an approach that will likely better support the systemic reforms being promoted in the Next Generation Science Standards in the USA and similar efforts in other countries. One component of that…

This study examined teachers' and students' initial conceptions of computer-based models--Flash and NetLogo models--and documented how teachers and students reconciled notions of multiple representations featuring macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic representations prior to actual intervention in eight high school chemistry…

Peer feedback is an inherent feature of classroom collaborative learning. Students invariably turn to their peers for feedback when carrying out an investigative task, and this feedback is usually implicit, unstructured and may positively or negatively influence students' learning when they work on a task. This study explored the…

This multiple case study investigated how two preservice chemistry teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) representations of behavior of gases progressed in the context of a semester-long chemistry teaching methods course. The change in the participants' PCK components was interpreted with respect to the theoretical PCK learning…

This study aimed to examine the written arguments developed by college freshman students using the Science Writing Heuristic approach in inquiry-based general chemistry laboratory classrooms and its relationships with students' achievement in chemistry courses. Fourteen freshman students participated in the first year of the study while 19…

Climate change is a complex environmental problem that can be used to examine students' understanding, gained through classroom communication, of climate change and its interactions. The present study examines a series of four science sessions given to a group of primary school student teachers (n?=?20). This includes analysis of the…

In science education, students sometimes create and engage in spontaneous science-oriented play where ideas about science and scientists are put to use. However, in previous research, little attention has been given to the role of informal spontaneous play in school science classrooms. We argue that, in order to enhance our understanding of…

Practical work is often noted as a core reason many students take on science in secondary schools (high schools). However, there are inherent difficulties associated with classroom practical work that militate against scientific inquiry, an approach espoused by many science educators. The use of interactive simulations to facilitate student…

This study investigated the effect of the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach on grade 9 students' understanding of chemical change and mixture concepts. Four intact classes taught by two chemistry teachers from a Turkish public high school were selected for the study; one class was assigned as the treatment group, and the other class…

This paper reports findings from an ongoing study exploring how the Content Representation (CoRe) design can be used as a tool to help chemistry student teachers begin acquiring the professional knowledge required to become expert chemistry teachers. Phase 2 of the study, reported in this paper, investigated how collaboration with school-based…

Explanations involving submicro levels of representation are central to science education, but known to be difficult for students in secondary school. This study examines students' written explanations of physical and chemical phenomena regarding matter and changes in matter, in a large-scale test. This is done in order to understand…

Grading practices can send a powerful message to students about course expectations. A study by Henderson et al. ("American Journal of Physics" 72:164-169, 2004) in physics education has identified a misalignment between what college instructors say they value and their actual scoring of quantitative student solutions. This work identified three…