Inquiry-based teaching promotes students' engagement in problem-solving and investigation as they learn science concepts. Current practice in science teacher education promotes the use of inquiry in the teaching of science. However, the literature suggests that many science teachers hold incomplete or incorrect conceptions of inquiry.…

Recruitment of highly qualified science and mathematics graduates has become a widespread strategy to enhance the quality of education in the field of STEM. However, attrition rates are very high suggesting preservice education programs are not preparing them well for the career change. We analyse the experiences of professionals who are…

Despite significant pressure to reform science teaching and learning in K12 schools, and a concurrent call to reform undergraduate courses, higher education science content courses have remained relatively static. Higher education science faculty have few opportunities to explore research on how people learn, examine state or national science…

Science teachers must adapt curriculum materials, so preservice teachers must develop beginning proficiency with this authentic task of teaching. What criteria do they use when they critique these materials in preparation for adapting them, when they develop the criteria themselves and when they are given a set of criteria from which to choose?…

The research literature is just beginning to uncover factors involved in sustaining constructivist learning environments, such as Project-Based Learning (PBL). Our case study investigates teacher responses to the challenges of constructivist environments, since teachers can play strong roles in supporting or undermining even the best…

School science students can benefit greatly from participation in student-directed, open-ended scientific inquiry projects. For various possible reasons, however, students tend not to be engaged in such inquiries. Among factors that may limit their opportunities to engage in open-ended inquiries of their design are teachers' conceptions about…

This study examines the possibilities of differential impacts on students' earth science learning outcomes between different preferred-actual learning environment spaces by using a newly developed ESCLEI (Earth Science Classroom Learning Environment Instrument). The instrument emphasizes three simultaneously important classroom components:…

Guided scientific inquiry investigations are designed to have students reach particular answers through the thinking processes and activities of scientists. This presents a difficult challenge for teachers who must selectively hold back answers from students to maintain an atmosphere that encourages student-directed inquiry. The present study…

This study investigated the ways in which beliefs about the nature of the science vary as a function of an individual's chemistry expertise and chemistry research experience across the range from high-schools students, whose exposure to chemistry occurs in the classroom, to practicing research chemists. Interviews conducted with a total of 91…

Skill in reading diverse genres of scientific texts, including media reports, is an important aspect of scientific literacy that some experts argue should be included in the science curriculum. To understand current and potential uses of media reports in classrooms, we conducted research in three areas. First, we examined major science education…

Using a theoretical perspective of communities of practice, this case study examines a prospective chemistry teacher's inquiry-based teaching during his practicum. Conrad was a former student of an inquiry-oriented science course, "Inquiry Empowering Technologies" (IET). The research questions were (a) How did Conrad translate the IET inquiry…

Science educators have recently begun to enact and study new, collaborative forms of professional development. Yet, few recognize that doing so requires contesting historical meanings of "university-school collaboration" and "professional development," both of which may operate to sustain a hierarchy model of collaboration. The hierarchy model…

Holding the premise that the development of expertise is a continuous process, this study concerns expert models and modeling processes associated with a modeling tool called Model-It. Five advanced Ph.D. students in environmental engineering and public health used Model-It to create and test models of water quality. Using "think aloud" technique…

In this paper, we draw upon a framework for analyzing the discursive interactions of science classrooms (Mortimer & Scott, 2003, "Meaning Making in Secondary Science Classrooms," Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press), to probe the movement between authoritative and dialogic discourse in a Brazilian high school science class. More specifically, we…

It is widely accepted that to be scientifically literate one needs to have the ability to make thoughtful decisions about socioscientific issues (SSI). This includes critical assessment of scientific claims and arguments involved. In this study we asked 89 science education students with substantial academic qualifications in science, working in…