This study is part of a cross-national research entitled "In the past and now: Constructivist practices in teaching chemistry--Bulgaria, the Balkans and Europe." The purpose of the research is to explore science secondary classroom environments in terms of the constructivist approach. The study has been carried out at international…

Underrepresentation of women of color in science majors and careers continues to be a concern for many science educators. Despite being the fastest growing population of college students, women of color have made insufficient gains in college science degree attainment. Sixteen women of color who were undergraduates majoring in a science field…

A critical problem with the examination of learning in education is that there is an underlying assumption that the dynamic systems associated with student information processing can be measured using static linear assessments. This static linear approach does not provide sufficient ability to characterize learning. Much of the modern research…

This paper presents the results of research regarding approaches to the origin of life featured in science textbooks produced by an Evangelical publisher. The research nature was qualitative with document analysis and an interpretive framework based on Epistemological Pluralism. Overall, the results indicate that there are four perspectives on the…

This classroom observation study explored how science teachers (N = 22) teach for creativity in grades 5-10 in Oman. We designed an observation form with 4 main categories that targeted the instructional practices related to teaching for creativity: questioning strategy, teacher's responses to students' ideas, classroom activities to support…

Despite research interest in testing the effects of literacy-infused science interventions in different contexts, research exploring the relationship, if any, between academic language and conceptual understanding is scant. What little research exists does not include English language learners (ELLs) and/or economically disadvantaged (ED) student…

The aim of this study is to describe the images that a group of high-achieving Mexican students hold of mathematicians. For this investigation, we used a research method based on the Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST) with a sample of 63 Mexican high school students. The group of students' pictorial and written descriptions of mathematicians assisted us…

The Framework for Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards in the USA emphasize learning progressions (LPs) that support conceptual coherence and the gradual building of knowledge over time. In the domain of genetics there are two independently developed alternative LPs. In essence, the difference between the two progressions…

This study focused on teachers' transfer of a variety of teaching methods from a teaching module on nanotechnology, which is an example of a topic outside the science curriculum, to teaching topics that are part of the chemistry curriculum. Nanotechnology is outside the science curriculum, but it was used in this study as a means to carry out a…

The aim of this study was to develop and validate Science Homework Scale (SHS) which assesses middle-school (grades 6-8) students' perceptions of teachers' homework practices and homework self-regulation in science. Students' perceptions of teachers' homework practices included homework quality and feedback on homework while students' homework…

This article reports on the development of an online dynamic approach for assessing and improving students' reading comprehension of science texts--the dynamic assessment for reading comprehension of science text (DARCST). The DARCST blended assessment and response-specific instruction into a holistic learning task for grades 5 and 6 students. The…

This study explored the effects of arguing to learn in a socioscientific context on the fundamental and derived components of reading, writing, and science understanding as integral parts of science literacy. We adopted mixed-methods in which the 1-group pretest-posttest design with supplemental interviews and questionnaires. The pretest evaluated…

How can classrooms become communities of inquiry that connect intellectually challenging science content with language-based activities (opportunities to talk, listen, read, and write) especially in settings with diverse populations? This question guided a 3-year mixed-methods research study using the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach in…

The work reported here involved a comparative study regarding the understanding that high school students (16-18 years) have of the concept of chemical elements and their periodic classification. More specifically, the level of knowledge on this topic was compared before and after the completion of baccalaureate studies in a sample of Spanish…

In this paper, we present the design and the results of a comparative study that evaluated the success of a transfer of an online-teaching resource between two universities, one in Germany and one in the USA. The teaching resource is an online physics lab that has been used in the physics education of medical students in Germany since 2003. The…