Background: It is stated that it is necessary that students develop their nanoliteracy in order to come up with everyday issues arising from Nanoscale Science and Technology (NST) applications, taking informed decisions and estimating the potential risks and benefits. Even though the inclusion of NST in compulsory education is supported by many…

Background: An increasing number of educational institutions are incorporating virtual reality (VR) applications in the instruction methodology for their laboratory science courses. However, there is debate about the use of the physical vs. the virtual lab as according to research the former offers a positive research-training environment, whereas…

Background: Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (NST) have been recognized as an emerging technology of the 21st century. The interdisciplinary nature and remarkable applications of NST have prompted science education researchers to recognize its potential in science teaching. NST have also been acknowledged as a vital field in technology in order to…

Background: A growing interest in student's perceptions of scientists has been identified in the literature, relying on the argument that stereotypical perceptions of scientists may affect student attitudes towards science and their willingness to pursue a science-related career. Thus, over the past 30 years, many studies have investigated…

The aim of this paper is to study the epistemological views of science teachers for the following epistemological issues: scientific method, demarcation of scientific knowledge, change of scientific knowledge and the status of scientific knowledge. Teachers' views for each one of these epistemological questions were investigated during…

This paper reports on the examination of physics teachers' beliefs and perceptions of laboratory and ICT supported physics instruction. The findings indicate that the teachers in the sample were generally positive about the affordances offered by the physics lab and ICT in physics instruction. However, school culture context, mainly the need to…

Reported are compulsory education pupils' representations of electric current in a constructivist approach to introducing direct current (DC) circuits. Suggests that the pupils views can be modelled after an energy framework. Makes suggestions about the content, the apparatus and the experiments used in teaching DC circuits. (CW)

Investigated the self-esteem of physics teachers of students taking pre-service physics teacher education courses. Findings indicate that students who dropped out from the courses had lower self-esteem than either students who satisfactorily completed them or similarly qualified students who did not take the courses. Implications for teacher…

Explores both the qualitative and quantitative dimensions of pupils' ideas related to conservation during state changes of water. Analysis of questionnaire data indicates that qualitative understanding precedes quantitative. Contains 18 references. (DDR)

Discussed in this study is whether there are differences in the assessment of student understanding as measured by written tests versus oral tests. Age and sex differences as well as the impact of different languages and cultures were investigated. (KR)