This article discusses the results of a mainly qualitative study into possible impacts of recent controversial socio-scientific issues on a group of Portuguese secondary school students regarding their conceptions about scientists. The 86 participants: (1) answered a questionnaire with open-ended questions; and (2) wrote a science fiction story…

This study examined prospective elementary teachers' learning about scientific inquiry in the context of an innovative life science course. Research questions included: (1) What do prospective elementary teachers learn about scientific inquiry within the context of the course? and (2) In what ways do their experiences engaging in science…

Recently, the importance of an everyday context in physics learning, teaching, and problem-solving has been emphasized. However, do students or physics educators really want to learn or teach physics problem-solving in an everyday context? Are there not any obstructive factors to be considered in solving the everyday context physics problems? To…

Based on a purposive sample of 15 second-year chemical engineering students, this study investigates students' conceptions of evaporation, condensation and vapour pressure. During individual interviews the students were questioned on three tasks that had been designed around these topics. Qualitative analysis of student responses showed a range of…

In a previous article, the problem of chemistry's lack of relevance in secondary chemical education was analysed using logical positivism as a tool. This article starts with the hypothesis that the problem can be addressed by means of activity theory, one of the important theories within the sociocultural school. The reason for this expectation is…

This paper presents a generally applicable method for characterizing subjects' hypothesis-testing behaviour based on a synthesis that extends on previous work. Beginning with a transcript of subjects' speech and videotape of their actions, a Reasoning Map is created that depicts the flow of their hypotheses, tests, predictions, results, and…

This article describes a research study concerning students' conceptions and reasonings about fluids and pressure in static situations. After a preliminary survey involving interviews and observations in class, some written questions were answered by various groups, totalling 428 Italian and French pupils in upper secondary school, 458 first-year…

To understand how students learn about science controversy, this study examines students' reasoning about tradeoffs in the context of a technology-enhanced curriculum about genetically modified food. The curriculum was designed and refined based on the Scaffolded Knowledge Integration Framework to help students sort and integrate their initial…

Educators and psychologists have evidence that students' conceptions of learning have a profound influence on the learning process, and thus are related to learning outcomes. The purpose of this paper was to explore the conceptions of learning science held by 120 Taiwanese high school students. The interview data gathered from these students,…

Changes in 70 teachers' confidence, attitudes and science understanding were tested before and after a major in-service programme. Attitudes were assessed using a 49-item Likert-scale test that probed attitudes to practical science teaching and in-service training. Multi-choice and open-ended questions measured understanding of electricity;…

I argue that there is potential for collaborative work between science educators and citizenship educators. However, following comments about that potential, I raise a number of challenges. Those challenges relate to the public perception of science, narrow academic perspectives of some science educators, and problematic attempts to develop a form…

Two episodes of tutoring through the internet have been analysed in terms of situational, interactive and content perspectives. The episodes involved secondary students who submitted queries about chemistry issues to an online service provided by teachers. Studies of the asking of questions and of the dynamics of classroom interactions are…

This study investigates the approaches adopted by students to a university writing programme designed to help them learn first-year undergraduate science. The research design includes phenomenographic analyses of 19 interviews and 50 open-ended questionnaires, as well as quantitative analyses of the qualitative data. The main results of the study…

This experimental study explores how 60 primary-age children's (9-11 years old) understanding of rocks was effected by instruction that used the conceptual structure of the rock cycle together with the analogy of aluminium can recycling. Using a combination of probes into children's understanding, including concept maps and semi-structured…

This study was an attempt to identify the epistemological roots of knowledge when students carry out hands-on experiments in physics. We found that, within the context of designing a solution to a stated problem, subjects constructed and ran thought experiments intertwined within the processes of conducting physical experiments. We show that the…