The purpose of this study was to investigate the student and teacher-level predictors of Turkish middle school students' engagement in science classes. Students' engagement was examined in terms of agentic, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement. The participants of the study were 134 Turkish science teachers and their 3394 grade 7…

This study examined changes in middle school teachers' beliefs about inquiry, implementation of inquiry practices, and self-efficacy to teach science through inquiry after participating in a year-long professional development program. The professional development model design was based on Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory of learning and…

The "leaky pipeline" with regard to students' engagement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) has triggered extensive research to understand and prevent students dropping out from STEM. To boost enrolment and interest in STEM fields, integrated STEM (iSTEM) education could be harnessed by providing students with…

Little research has been done to examine the impact of informal science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning on middle school students' career aspirations. Participants included 507 incoming fifth through eighth graders from underrepresented populations in STEM fields, which were recruited at three sites. Data collected…

This study aimed to investigate the role of students' classroom learning environment perceptions and teacher effectiveness in 7th grade students' self-regulation in science classes. Students' self-regulation was examined in terms of self-efficacy, achievement goals, and metacognitive strategy use which constitute important components of…

In science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM), hands-on making is the interplay of the sensuous forces of object-free and object-related intelligence transcendence in the continual process of quality improvement. The present research involved the design of a STEAM contest that focuses on having students use hand tools to…

Teachers have a crucial role to play in raising future generations of citizens who are aware of issues in genetics literacy such as gene therapy, cloning, and stem cell research. Teachers' teaching practices are influenced by their knowledge in genetics literacy and their attitudes towards different issues. Accordingly, this study explored the…

Recent years have witnessed a dramatic rise in the number of middle and high school students from Asian countries participating in U.S.-based summer experiences (Perlez & Gao, 2013). Although summer science camps have been shown to improve students' attitudes and interests related to science and science learning (Bhattacharyya, Mead &…

In 2003 the University of Missouri (with the aid of US National Science Foundation funding) initiated an alternative certification program (CAP) to address the well-documented need in the US for increasing the quantity and quality of mathematics and science teachers for the middle and secondary levels. Nationwide current certification programs do…