This paper analyses the extent to which textbook images are designed using the Instructional Criteria for Image Analysis (ICIA) model in textbooks. The ICIA proposed that learning through images involves interaction between the learner, the image, and the activities with images proposed to the student. Images from the main text and activity…

Early science learning and, specifically, the development of scientific process skills are essential for children to understand the natural world around them. Question asking is a valuable tool to help children get information to organise and make sense of their environment. This research aims to find out whether pre-elementary children employ…

Logical connectives are grammatical linkers that appear as essential components in the production of logical argumentation of inquiry and critical thinking in school science activities. However, these cohesive terms represent a language barrier for science student learning. Therefore, students' lack in their understanding of academic connectives…

The aim of the present investigation was to analyse the role of academic self-efficacy and approaches to learning in general and in Physics and Chemistry academic achievements. The sample comprised 507 secondary school students of two Spanish schools and the study was conducted in the context of a Physics and Chemistry subject. Structural equation…

Several international reports promote the use of the inquiry teaching methodology for improvements in science education at elementary school. Nevertheless, research indicates that pre-service elementary teachers have insufficient experience with this methodology and when they try to implement it, the theory they learnt in their university…

Despite the increasing demand for non-formal science learning activities, few studies report on practitioners' perspectives and experiences with designing and implementing such activities worldwide. This paper focuses on their challenges by drawing upon twenty-two interviews with practitioners involved in diverse science learning activities in…

This study concerns a framework for designing Teaching-Learning Sequences that aims to integrate the implementation of scientific practices in the context of daily problems. Said framework consists of three stages (formulation of the design principles, instructional design and design of the learning activities). It is based on four design…

In this paper we explore the views and opinions of four secondary education science teachers regarding the teaching of scientific competences. Their views were gathered in the context of a training programme in which they had to design, implement, and assess their own teaching unit for developing students' scientific competences by means of…

A qualitative study was made of how the learning-to-learn competence is favoured in prospective primary teachers when they participate in an experimental activity (ExA). The ExA was on the germination of seeds. Its objective was for the prospective teachers to learn how to (i) design and execute a school scientific inquiry, and (ii) reflect…

We studied the emotions experienced by students during the last two years of compulsory secondary education (15 and 16 years old) when learning physics and chemistry. The objective of this piece of research was to establish different relationship between emotions felt by students and variables like the didactic methodology or the kind of science…

Modelling-based teaching activities have been designed and analysed from distinct theoretical perspectives. In this paper, we use one of them--the model of modelling diagram (MMD)--as an analytical tool in a regular classroom context. This paper examines the challenges that arise when the MMD is used as an analytical tool to characterise the…

The present work discusses, firstly, different dimensions that characterize the use of analogies in the classroom. Foremost among these are the pupil's level of activity and the degree of monitoring carried out by the teacher. Secondly, the routines declared by a group of science teachers (n = 73), when they described their classroom activity in…

The present article presents a didactic proposal oriented to teaching notions of semiconductor physics in secondary education. The methods and the results of a pilot study designed to analyse the effectiveness of a teaching sequence on the topic are also described. The subjects were 60 students, aged 14-15 years, of a secondary school in Seville,…

This work presents an assessment of pre-service teachers' argumentative practice, after implementing a novel teaching-learning sequence on soil health including a citizen science programme, which was applied outdoors at the university garden. The sequence was implemented at five Spanish universities with 351 undergraduates studying Early Childhood…

We study the misconceptions about colour that most people hold, determining the general phenomenological laws that govern them. Concept mapping was used to combat the misconceptions which were found in the application of a test specifically designed to determine these misconceptions, while avoiding the possible misleading inductions that could…