Queensland schools are currently teaching with the first National Curriculum for Australia. This new curriculum was one of a number of political responses to address the recurring low scores in literacy, mathematics, and science that continue to hold Australia in poor international rankings. Teachers have spent 2 years getting to know the new…

Describes a study that identifies what were considered new directions for science teaching and research in 1984 and compares those with actual developments. Considers possible future directions for research. One key implication drawn from the analysis is that science education researchers have tended to neglect working in collaboration with other…

Investigates 20 elementary school teachers' perceptions of what the term "activities that work" means. Suggests that hands-on science activities are interesting and motivating for children, have a clear outcome or result, are manageable in the classroom, and preferably used in a context in which science is integrated into themes.…

Examined how elementary students in three classes using different teaching strategies, presented with discrepant event problems in science, begin the problem-solving process by exploration of the problem space. Because of the constraints imposed by each teaching strategy, none of those used was considered entirely satisfactory. Appendix contains…