Questions whether student teachers' beliefs influence their images of good primary science teaching and whether completion of an initial degree had an impact on their conceptions of effective practice. Interviews Canadian preservice primary teachers (n=12) and compares the findings with a similar Australian longitudinal study. Discusses influences…

Assesses the conceptual change of teachers who have been involved in the development, implementation, field testing, and evaluation of several modules. Points out that the intrinsic nature of the STEMS (Science-Technology-Environment-Society) curriculum requires that the teachers who teach it also be the developers of its modules. (Contains 48…

Documents a quasi-scientific comparative study of two groups of 'recent school leavers' in the UK. Studies non-science university undergraduates and explores whether people living with the immediacy and relevance of higher-than-average levels of radioactivity were more knowledgeable and emotionally detached than a similar group removed from this…

Observes an eighth grade science class in two overlapping perspectives: an action orientation and a discourse orientation. Reports that the teacher's actions encouraged univocal discourse between students and their reproductive understanding of scientific concepts. Concludes that before a class can become more like a scientific discourse…

Reports on a qualitative research study on electricity carried out in 1998 on alternative conceptions (ACs) held by a select group of middle school teachers. The study was designed to identify the nature and origin of the ACs of these teachers and relate them to other similar studies carried out by other researchers. (Contains 27 references.)…

Describes a study of Norwegian science textbooks for grade 8 that indicates an individualistic image of science where individual scientists are discovering truth through experiment. Discusses the analysis of a science book with regard to ideologies, learning, and scientific method. (Contains 22 references.) (Author/YDS)

Examines pre-college students' understanding of the nature of science and tracks those beliefs over the course of an academic year. Studies students' conceptions of the nature of science using a model developed for use in this study. (Contains 24 references.) (Author/YDS)

Studies English comprehensive secondary school students' interpretation and hypothesis-making while 12 year-old students are observing a bottle ecosystem of brine shrimps without any prior instruction and keeping diaries. Studies students through the task of open-ended diary writing and through small group discussions about the scientific…

Explores the nature and type of evidence employed by participants in an issue of public concern. Examines how the different types of evidence were brought to bear on a socio-scientific issue involving environmental regulatory policy and the implications of this for school science curricula. (Contains 33 references.) (Author/YDS)

Reports on aspects of a three-phase study whose aim was to gather information on undergraduates' responses to the study of science. Involves the development and validation of an appropriate research instrument and using the instrument with students in the first year of study at a Southern African university. (Contains 17 references.) (Author/YDS)

Concerns the development stages of three attitudes to science and school scales for use with children aged 5-11 years. Reports the base-line performance of the attitude scales with over 800 students. (Contains 50 references.) (Author/YDS)

Describes a novel method for analyzing concept maps for research and analysis purposes. Examines 56 complex concept maps generated from student interviews on the topic of chemical bonding. (Contains 32 references.) (Author/YDS)

Focuses on the gap between research findings and implementation of the results into science teacher education programs, curricula, and professional practices. Addresses one implementation issue that needs to inform future research, teacher education, professional development, and classroom instruction: How views of science, learning, discourse,…

Makes a case for an alternative epistemology of research based on the hermeneutic-phenomenology of Max van Manen (1990). This interpretive approach to understanding the nature of a social phenomenon involves the researcher in making explicit the meaning of a particular lived experience and generating a pedagogical thoughtfulness in readers.…

Highlights two benefits of guiding teachers through a collaborative process for developing instructional units and informing them in advance that their work will be published on the Internet. Through a nationally recognized project, in-service and pre-service teachers designed mathematics and science units for their own use but also for…