Science is a subject steeped in specialized vocabulary and elementary preservice teachers may find themselves less than comfortable with that vocabulary. Couple this with their long documented fear of the subject and we have teachers who enter their first classrooms unsure of themselves and the content and thus, less able to prepare their own…

Scientifically literate citizens are able to evaluate news reports on everyday problems with a critical stance to information, which means using both value and norm-based as well as evidence and logic based thinking. Developing a critical stance towards information in the news media, requires familiarity with a complex set of interdisciplinary…

Science educators have noted the unique characteristics of science literacy in terms of text structure, vocabulary demands, and reliance on abstract concepts (Cervetti, Pearson, Bravo, & Barber, 2006; Fang & Schleppegrell, 2008; Pytash, 2013). Furthermore, other scholars have defined scientific thinking processes as inextricable from the…

This study was grounded on the ultimate goal of science education in Malaysia, which is to produce individuals who are scientifically literate. The study specifically aimed to probe how research participants conceptualize the relationship between scientific theory and law. Guided by the phenomenographic structure of awareness as the methodological…

This study explored the ways in which pre-service teachers' (PSTs) understanding of the nature of science (NOS) emerged in their experience of a socio-scientific inquiry-based (SSI) experience. In this study, an undergraduate science course with structured collaboration on a SSI-based inquiry between PSTs and campus scientists was intertwined with…