Investigates how students develop an understanding of chemical representations with the aid of a computer-based visualizing too called eChem that allows them to build molecular models and view multiple representations simultaneously. Involves 11th grade students (n=71) at a small public high school and examines the changes in students'…

Points out the contributions of women to science education and their impact on the understanding of science teaching, curriculum, evaluation, and teacher education. Discusses the role of gender identity in shaping science learning. (Contains 54 references.) (YDS)

Explains what taking a sociocultural perspective on science education means and discusses classroom interactions, which is also a dominant focus of sociocultural research in science education. (Contains 87 references.) (YDS)

Discusses Dewey's vision of the scientific mind and analyzes the stereotype of scientific thinking. Explains Dewey's notion of experience and clarifies the difference between ordinary experience and a Deweyan experience. (Contains 27 references.) (YDS)

Uses a conceptual argument to expand current vision of performance assessment. Examines how the science of assessment is challenged and transformed within a critical science education perspective and the conditions needed to create an equitable and inclusive practice of science and science assessment across diversity. (Contains 34 references.)…

Explores technology-supported inquiry learning as an opportunity for integrating content and process learning using a design framework called the Learning-for-Use model. Describes a curriculum called the Create-a-World Project as an example of a technology-supported inquiry unit that engages students in open-ended earth science investigations…

Discusses the research needed in implementing the National Science Education Standards. Research needs include being approached from multiple perspectives, being conducted in the real world, not assuming change can be driven from the top down, focusing on student roles and student work, giving major attention to teacher learning, and attending to…

Identifies, describes, and categorizes events occurring between members of different learning groups in three ninth-grade physical science classrooms. Explains how concepts, ideas, tools, tool-related practices, and materials diffused throughout the classroom environment were appropriated by learners in various ways to contribute to the…

Reports on a study that investigated ways in which children's use of science journals aided their acquisition of science understanding in one kindergarten and one fourth-grade classroom. Indicates that children recontextualized their understandings of science investigations and phenomena by using three types of mental contexts reflected in their…

Synthesizes literature on apprenticeship learning, the sociology of science, and K-12 science education to develop a set of characteristics for designing/evaluating participatory science learning experiences. Clarifies and illuminates the value of these characteristics for science educators by using them as evaluative criteria for characterizing…

Presents the results of a study analyzing students' gestures and scientific discourse by supporting three assertions about the relationship between laboratory experiences, gestures, and scientific discourse. Discusses the implications for laboratory experiments which students should attempt to explain while still in the lab rather than afterwards…

Proposes that more research is needed in the areas of teachers' beliefs, knowledge, and practices of inquiry-based science as well as student learning included in the design and implementation of inquiry-based curriculum. Suggests that particular attention be paid to research on inquiry in diverse classrooms and to modes of inquiry-based…

Describes the design, development, validation, and use of an instrument that measures student attitudes and several environmental dimensions (i.e., standards-based teaching, home support, and peer support). Indicates that the classroom environment (standards-based teaching practices) was the strongest independent predictor of both achievement and…

Examines the criteria that middle school students, nonscientist adults, technicians, and scientists used to rate the validity of conclusions drawn by hypothetical students from a set of evidence. The sources of the groups' differing epistemic criteria rest in their different spheres of cultural practice. Explores implications of this perspective…

Reports findings from a qualitative study intended to understand how inner-city mothers perceive science. Compares these findings to argue that those mothers who had spent time doing science with their children were more likely to have a more personal, dynamic, and inquiry-based view of science. Discusses implications for science education reform.…