Lifelong learning and diverse technical information are challenges for designing curricula. The Finnish National Defence University (NDU) provides undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in academic and military disciplines according to the Bologna process. Technology is one of the major learning lines at the NDU, but basic scientific education…

Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) seems to be the appropriate method to encourage interest in science and technology education. The core principles of IBSE are involvement of students in discovering natural laws, linking information into a meaningful context, developing critical thinking and promoting positive attitudes towards science. IBSE…

Creativity plays a very important role in education. Most of educational systems support creativity as relevant competence for the 21st century. According to the findings of experts, teachers' creativity is important for the development of students' creativity. We introduce a theoretical base of creativity and styles of creativity. Based…

IRIS (Interests and Recruitment in Science; http://iris.fp-7.org/about-iris/) is a European 7th framework project focusing on the challenge that only few young people in general, and women in particular, choose an education and career in science and technology. Project IRIS aims to contribute to the improvement of recruitment, retention and gender…

SECURE is a collaborative project under FP7 to provide research results of current mathematics, science and technology (MST) curricula across Europe. The research focuses on the MST curricula offered to 5, 8, 11 and 13 year old learners in ten European countries. The consortium invited 60 schools from each partner country to participate in the…

In demanding innovation areas such as eHealth, the primary emphasis is easily placed on the product and process quality aspects in the design phase. Customer quality may receive adequate attention when the target audience is well-defined. But if the multidimensional evaluative focus does not get enough space until the implementation phase, this…

Raising standards through inquiry-based science education (IBSE)--what are the challenges for pre-service teacher education? What do ongoing teachers and active teachers learn from each other when planning, conducting and evaluating minds-on and hands-on IBSE activities in the classroom? What do they learn "beyond" IBSE? The Bremen…

This paper identifies an "education through science" philosophy for school science teaching at the secondary level and determines its interrelationship with approaches to student acquisition of key educational competences and the identification of teacher needs to promote meaningful learning during science lessons. Based on the…

The core idea of the PROFILES project is to support science teachers' continuous professional development. The instructional innovation of the PROFILES is the so called Three Stage Model (TSM) which aims to arouse students' intrinsic motivation, to offer a meaningful inquiry-based learning environment and to use the science learning in…

Teacher ownership is crucial for the sustainability of science education reform efforts. This paper discusses participatory design as a bottom-up approach for promoting teachers' sense of ownership of inquiry-based learning and teaching approach as put forward by the PROFILES project. According to the prevalent argument in favor of…

School subjects can provide a good context for learning a second language. This is especially true for science as it can involve a range of student centred activities, which involve students in collaborative communication related to a range of different competences. This paper reflects on one approach to learning in a second language, using the…

This paper describes recent developments in Ireland to promote a greater interest in science among students in the 12-15 age group by means of practical work involving Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE). The tasks, know as Investigations, are a component of the assessment of the subject Science which is studied as part of the Junior…

One critical aspect that hinders the systematic use of concept mapping in everyday classrooms is the difficulty of providing high-quality feedback to students so as to keep improving and revising their concept maps (Cmaps). The development of an innovative way to analyse, at a glance, students' Cmaps is presented to allow a diagnostic…

Main aim of this study is to examine the influence of computer-assisted roundhouse diagrams on high school 9th grade students' academic achievements in the subjects of "Force and Motion". The study was carried out in a public high school in Diyarbakir the province in the Southeast of Turkey. In the study, the…

This study aims at analysing the relations between students' achievement motivation, learning strategies and their epistemological beliefs in learning through structural equation modelling, and at exploring the mediation role of motivation in the relations between learning strategies and epistemological beliefs. The study group was composed…