This article reports an international initiative to develop and validate a "situational interest questionnaire" in three cultural/linguistic contexts: Canada (French), USA (English), and Taiwan (Chinese). The 20-item solution ([alpha] = 0.90) presented four factors: "enjoyment," "value," "attention/sustained…

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the intellectual structure of the research on educational technology in science education (ETiSE) within the most recent years (2008-2013). Based on the criteria for educational technology research and the citation threshold for educational co-citation analysis, a total of 137 relevant ETiSE papers…

This paper presents the third study of research trends in science education. In this review, a total of 990 papers published in the "International Journal of Science Education," the "Journal of Research in Science Teaching," and "Science Education" from 2008 to 2012 were analyzed. The results indicate that in the…

The issues of metacognitive scaffolding in science education (MSiSE) have become increasingly popular and important. Differing from previous content reviews, this study proposes a series of quantitative computer-based analyses by integrating document co-citation analysis, social network analysis, and exploratory factor analysis to explore the…

This study investigated if and to what extent grade 8 and 9 students in Taiwan attributed materialistic properties to sound concepts, and whether they hold scientific views in parallel with materialistic views. Taiwanese middle school students are a special population since their scores in international academic comparison tests such as TIMSS and…

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate two survey instruments to evaluate high school students' scientific epistemic beliefs and goal orientations in learning science. The initial relationships between the sampled students' scientific epistemic beliefs and goal orientations in learning science were also investigated. A final valid…

In the field of science education, laboratory learning environment has gained renewed interest in the recent decade. This study aimed to investigate the relationships among students' conceptions of science laboratory learning, perceptions of the science laboratory learning environment, and their academic self-efficacy in science learning by…

Conceptions of learning are drawn from an individuals' learning experiences, which are theoretically built upon the phenomenographic research method. Seven conceptions of learning in the domain of science are identified: "memorizing," "testing," "calculating and practicing," "increase of knowledge," "application," "understanding," and "seeing in a…

The present study was a follow-up to Tsai and Wen's (2005) earlier research, in which 802 articles published in the "International Journal of Science Education," "Science Education," and the "Journal of Research in Science Teaching" from 1998 to 2002 were analysed in terms of author's nationality, research type, and research topic. In the present…

In the area of science education research, studies have attempted to investigate conceptions of learning, approaches to learning, and self-efficacy, mainly focusing on science in general or on specific subjects such as biology, physics, and chemistry. However, few empirical studies have probed students' earth science learning. This study aimed to…

Past studies have shown that students' conceptions of learning science (CLS) are related to their approaches to learning science (ALS) and to their self-efficacy for learning science (SELS), but it has not yet been studied whether parents' CLS play a role in children's ALS and SELS. This research investigated 472 pairs of Chinese high school…

The purpose of the current research was to develop an instrument for high school students aiming to explore the satisfaction and frustration of their basic psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence while learning science and to investigate their relation to self-efficacy in science learning. This research involves two studies.…

Science learning self-efficacy could be regarded as a multi-factor belief which comprises different aspects such as cognitive skills, practical work, and everyday application. However, few studies have investigated the relationships among these factors that compose science learning self-efficacy. Also, culture may play an important role in…

The main purpose of this study was to concurrently investigate Taiwanese high-school students' and their science teachers' conceptions of learning science (COLS) and conceptions of science assessment (COSA). A total of 1,048 Taiwanese high-school students and their 59 science teachers were invited to fill out two questionnaires assessing their…

Past studies investigating university level students' views of nature of science (NOS) were relatively few and most of them were conducted in Western countries. This paper focuses upon comparing the quantitative patterns in Western (US Caucasian and African-American) and non-Western (Taiwanese) students' views of NOS (VNOS) by adopting a survey…