In her article "Framing New Research in Science Literacy and Language Use: Authenticity, Multiple Discourses, and the "Third Space"," Carolyn S. Wallace presented a model of science literacy that frames language in science to teaching principles in a powerful way. The model would however be enhanced if two additional concepts are made explicit,…

The purpose of this 2-year study was to investigate Malawian teacher educators' perspectives and dispositions toward teaching about ecological sustainability issues in Malawi, a developing country in sub-Sahara Africa. This study was embedded in a larger theoretical framework of investigating earth systems science through the understanding of…

The scarce attention to the assessment and evaluation in science education research has been especially harmful for teaching science-technology-society (STS) issues, due to the dialectical, tentative, value-laden, and polemic nature of most STS topics. This paper tackles the methodological difficulties of the instruments that monitor views related…

The process of construction of meanings for the concepts of concentration and neutralization is explored in terms of "contextualizing practices" (Lemke, 1990, "Talking Science. Language, Learning and Values," Norwood, NJ: Ablex) creation of meanings through connections established among actions and their context. This notion is expanded to include…

Partnerships of teachers with scientists are thought to be important for many aspects of science education reform, but it is not always clear how to make such partnerships productive. Between 1994 and 1997, high school teachers were partnered with scientists, to design yearlong ecological research projects in which the teachers were learning for…

Microevolutionary mechanisms are taught almost exclusively in our schools, to the detriment of those mechanisms that allow us to understand the larger picture--macroevolution. The results are demonstrable; as a result of the strong emphasis on micro processes in evolution education, students and teachers still have poor understanding of the…

The purposes of this study were to (a) gain an understanding of the views of inquiry held by faculty members involved in undergraduate science teaching and (b) describe the challenges, constraints, and opportunities that they perceived in designing and teaching inquiry-based laboratories. Participants included 19 college professors, representing…

This article describes the development and field test of an instrument, the Views on Science and Education Questionnaire, designed to measure participants' concepts of the nature of science (NOS) and relevant teaching attitudes. The questionnaire includes 15 questions, each followed by several items representing different philosophical positions.…

Contemporary assessment practices in science education have undergone significant changes in recent decades. The basis for these changes and the resulting new assessment practices are the subject of this two-part paper. Part 1 considers the basis of assessment that, more than 25 years ago, was driven by the assumptions of decomposability and…

This study explores seventh graders' use of inscriptions in a teacher-designed project-based science unit. To investigate students' learning practices during the 8-month water quality unit, we collected multiple sources of data (e.g., classroom video recordings, student artifacts, and teacher interviews) and employed analytical methods that drew…

This research focused on the interactionist conceptual ecologies of inservice teachers and how these ecologies influenced these teachers' conceptual frameworks for the nature of science (NOS). The participants in the study were five teachers enrolled in a graduate course focused on NOS. Data included participants' responses to open-ended and…

Teacher education programs have met with limited success in improving teachers' understanding of the nature of science (NOS). Research suggests that such efforts could be enhanced by addressing NOS in preservice teachers' science courses. We planned NOS instruction in a physical science content course for preservice elementary teachers. Our first…

This study explored preservice teachers' (n = 25) knowledge structures and their mastery of content knowledge in relation to their ability to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of a fourth grader's videotaped explanations of a scientific phenomenon, i.e., molecular kinetic properties of air. Participants' knowledge structures were analyzed…

This paper examines the images middle school students have of science and technology, the workplaces, and the relevant professions. It also describes the effect on these images caused by an instructional initiative, "Investigation into Science and Technology" (IST), designed to introduce students to science and technology in the "real life."…

This study explores how individuals make use of scientific content knowledge for socioscientific argumentation. More specifically, this mixed-methods study investigates how learners apply genetics content knowledge as they justify claims relative to genetic engineering. Interviews are conducted with 45 participants, representing three distinct…