Current U.S. science education reform efforts call for engineering to be included as part of science instruction at all grade levels. As students experience engineering instruction alongside science, an important question is how students conceptualize the nature of those two fields, and especially the extent to which they differentiate science and…

Previous work has highlighted the difficulties students have when explaining wave behavior. We present an investigation of chemistry students' understanding of the double-slit experiment, where students were asked to explain a series of PhET simulations illustrating a single continuous light source, single-slit diffraction, and double-slit…

This study explores high school students' and their mathematics teachers' mathematical discourses on the equal sign and variables in the classroom context. The participants in this case study were ninth graders and their mathematics teachers. The data were analyzed in terms of participants' routines, specifically ritual and explorative routines in…

Teacher education programs need to prepare their preservice teachers to both implement current science education reforms and teach in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. In this qualitative study, we used a framework of four instructional principles to investigate 31 preservice secondary science teachers' understanding of instruction…

Young learners benefit from learning and engaging in nature, but nature-based outdoor learning impacts on teachers are less understood. The present study examined elementary school teachers' learning experiences with science instruction in outdoor natural settings. An Outdoor Science Education (OSE) program partnered with schools in the…

The aim of this study is to examine whether the structural model that Sahin and Ates (2020) put forward about the relationship among students' scientific literacy levels, logical thinking ability, cognitive styles, mental capacity, and mental rotation ability differ in terms of gender. A causal-comparative model approach was used in this study.…

The motivational beliefs of students, who were mainly bioscience majors interested in careers in health professions, in mandatory large introductory level algebra-based physics courses were surveyed. Although female students outnumbered male students in these courses, they had lower physics motivational beliefs including self-efficacy and identity…

Part of learning a new discipline is learning the language used in the discipline. For mathematics, emergent multilingual learners (EML) must learn English and mathematical symbols in order to make meaning and communicate. The mathematics community's understanding of communication is complex and includes the use of natural language, incorporation…

This qualitative case study investigates how, and to what extent, primary school teachers notice students' mathematical thinking in the context of whole number subtraction. A task involving a student's invented strategy was used to collect data. Three noticing questions connected to the task were asked to 45 teachers. Their written answers were…

Engineering education is receiving increased attention, although teacher preparation for engineering in the elementary grades is not well understood. This study investigated the influences of an elementary science teaching methods course, focused specifically on elementary engineering, on teacher candidates' self-efficacy for teaching engineering…

The study explored science and science education professors' nature of science (NOS) understandings and perceptions on NOS instruction before (T1), during (T2), and after (T3) a professional development (PD) series. Using repeated measures design, findings showed an increasing trend across NOS aspects. Summary scores were used to classify…

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of design-based STEM activities developed by prospective secondary school maths teachers on their problem-solving skills and scientific creativity. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used in the current study, involving 45 senior students (i.e., prospective secondary school maths…

Sociocultural language learning theory and situated learning theory stress the importance of social interactions and context in both science and language learning. In addition, researchers have highlighted the important role that multimodal language plays in meaning-making and communication in science. The purpose of this study was to examine the…

Science fiction conventions are places where individuals with an interest in diverse genres and mediums can engage with a community that bridges the world of science fiction and fact. Many of these conventions provide a science "track" where science experts share their expertise and research on scientific findings and applications of…

Integrated STEAM instruction continues to be a major focus of K-12 education. In effort to better understand STEAM education, we reviewed existing frameworks for implementing integrated STEAM in classrooms. We found that existing frameworks largely focused on the lens of the teacher, thus leaving the student perspective of STEAM learning…