This study investigated preservice elementary science teachers' (PSTs) informal reasoning regarding socioscientific issues (SSI), their epistemological beliefs, and the relationship between informal reasoning and epistemological beliefs. From several SSIs, nuclear power usage was selected for this study. A total of 647 Turkish PSTs enrolled in…

This study investigates the relationship, if any, between teacher participation in a targeted professional development programme and changes in participants' instructional practice and their pupils' attitudes to learning primary science. The programme took place over a 2-year period in 15 small rural schools in the West of Ireland. Data sources…

Pupil talk and discussion are seen as having important social and cognitive outcomes. In science classes, pupils' collaborative talk supports the construction of meaning and helps examine the status of evidence, theory and knowledge. However, pupil interactive talk in groups is rare in science lessons. The research reported is part of a project to…

The purpose of this research was to use a multidimensional theoretical framework to examine young children's knowledge about the Moon. The research was conducted in the interpretive paradigm and the design was a multiple case study of ten children between the ages of three and eight from the USA and Australia. A detailed, semi-structured interview…