As a key to decide a success or risk of a community of practice, legitimacy of a participant has been conceptually discussed in abundant theoretical literature. Achieving legitimacy is interpreted as gaining credibility from peers, enlarging divisions of labor in a social environment, collecting reinforcement from colleague teachers in the…

In order to educate elementary students scientifically literate as expected in the science curricula in many countries around the world, science teachers need to be equipped with the diverse aspects of scientific literacy. This study investigates whether pre-service elementary science teachers at universities in Turkey have a satisfactory level of…

The shortfall of young people, particularly women, in the field of Science, Mathematics and Engineering (SME) has been shown in many national studies. Schreiner and Sjoberg (2007) indicated that boys outnumber girls in physics and engineering studies, while the gender balance is shifted towards the girls in studies including medicine, veterinary…

It is commonly believed that learning styles are not really concerned with "what" learners learn, but rather "how" they prefer to learn and it is also an important factor for students' academic achievement and attitudes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the learning styles of pre-service teachers enrolled at elementary education…

This paper examined high school students' attitudes toward the environment and their interest in learning about environmental protection with respect to gender. The questionnaire-based Relevance of Science Education (ROSE) Project data of 9th grade students were collected in Turkey from 1,260 students. Statistical analysis included tabulation of…