The understandings of properties that children develop in the context of rock and mineral identification point to the challenges of observing in a manner authentic to the discipline of geology. The notebook entries of 34 third graders written during the enactment of a commercial unit on earth materials were investigated for their descriptions of…

The purpose of this study is to propose a framework drawing on theoretical and empirical science education research that explains the common prominent field-based components of the handful of persistent and successful Earth science education programs designed for indigenous communities in North America. These programs are primarily designed for…

In this study, students' views on the nature of science (NOS) were investigated with the use of a large-scale survey. An empirically derived multiple-choice format questionnaire was administered to 1702 Korean 6th, 8th, and 10th graders. The questionnaire consisted of five items that respectively examined students' views on five constructs…

Scientific writing contains unique linguistic features that construe special realms of scientific knowledge, values, and beliefs. An understanding of the functionality of these features is critical to the development of literacy in science. This article describes some of the key linguistic features of scientific writing, discusses the challenges…

An important distinction can be made between the science, technology, and society (STS) movement of past years and the domain of socioscientific issues (SSI). STS education as typically practiced does not seem embedded in a coherent developmental or sociological framework that explicitly considers the psychological and epistemological growth of…

This study explored how some college students understand the nature of the theory of evolution and how they evaluate its scientific status. We conducted semistructured interviews with 15 college biology seniors in which we asked them to explain why they think evolution assumes the status of a scientific theory, how it compares to other scientific…

This paper reports on a 3-year study of a half-day urban magnet high school founded upon a desire to provide rigorous science, math, and technology experiences to students who would not otherwise have access to such educational opportunities. Using the theoretical lens of how a model of an educated person gets culturally produced within the school…

This analysis of research conducted by graduate students at South African universities over the last 70 years is an attempt to identify the foci of South African science education research. Appropriate graduate degrees were systematically identified by interrogating electronic databases and verifying details. Title and abstract were then used to…

Using the US national sample from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Rasch modeling method, this study identified the conceptual progression sequence of various matter concept aspects, and compared students' latent abilities against the sequence. We found that the four matter aspects, i.e. conservation, physical…

Taking the Junior Secondary School Chemistry Curriculum (JSSCC) in the People's Republic of China as a case, this paper approaches the issue of the tension between elite and future citizenry orientations in science curriculum. The changes in the JSSCC over the period from 1978 to 2001 are explained from three viewpoints: sociopolitical,…

Secondary science methods students' thinking on coteaching practice was studied for the development of conscious elements of practical teacher knowledge supporting the use of structured inquiry. Reflective dialogue on practice in an electronic forum was analyzed for elements of formal learning and biography (past and present) that informed…

We use identity as a multidimensional lens to explore ways in which beginning teachers saw themselves as scientists and as science teachers during and after 10-week summer apprenticeships at a science lab. Data included four interviews with each teacher, three during the apprenticeship and one after the first year of teaching. Two themes emerged…

This paper deals with a number of conceptual and theoretical issues that underlie the proposal to employ narrative explanations in science education: What is narrative? What is explanation? and What is narrative explanation? In answering these questions, we develop a framework of narrative elements and characteristics of narrative explanations.…

This study focuses on everyday or lay understandings of inheritance. In the northeastern Brazil, 100 individuals were interviewed in order to describe how they explain the origin of genetic disorders affecting their relatives for several generations. There were involved 60 individuals from a large consanguineous family with many members affected…

The study examines how social and cultural factors mediate the teaching and learning of science in an Australian high school. Grade 10 students, many of them new migrants, often transient and from circumstances of economic hardship, were taught a 5-week unit on chemistry by a teacher with social and cultural histories similar to those of most of…