Learning analytics, referring to the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of data about learners and their contexts in order to optimize learning and the environments in which it occurs, is proving to be a powerful approach for understanding and improving science learning. However, few studies focused on leveraging learning analytics…

Research indicates that students' interest in science decreases during their school years. To counteract this, a quasi-experimental instructional intervention was designed in which we addressed students' leisure interests to foster their (situational) interest in physics. Students in the intervention group got the opportunity to choose topics…

While research on the understanding of physics concepts in individuals with autism remains scarce, the ever-increasing number of these students in inclusive education nowadays makes their systematic education in all fields of learning necessary. For this purpose, an experimental investigation was conducted to compare 19 autistic adolescents with a…

The use of texts is an indispensable resource for students' learning, especially in science domains. While developing understanding of a specific topic usually is the main goal of reading expository texts, an important consideration is how to best measure whether this understanding has been reached. In this study, we aimed to analyze gains in…

The need to modernise school physics to encompass the fundamentals of Einsteinian physics is widely recognised. While the ability of students to comprehend qualitative Einsteinian concepts has been demonstrated, little information exists to determine the best student age and the duration of instruction required for introducing Einsteinian physics…

The present study contributes to the understanding of physics students' representational competence by examining specific bodily practices (e.g. gestures, enactment) of students' interaction and constructions of representations in relation to a digital learning environment. We present and analyse video data of upper-secondary school students'…

University is a critical timepoint for students in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career pathway. Gender differences in the persistence of STEM students have been established, with female students more at risk for attrition from this career pathway. While the persistence of undergraduate STEM students has been a focus…

This study examines the design and enactment of a secondary physics unit on electromagnetism. The unit used an educational videogame to support peer dialogic engagement in a Singapore secondary school by engaging learners with qualitative physics phenomena. As an example of game-based learning, the unit includes activities and resources that…

Science and science education are recognised internationally as essential for ensuring a sustainable and prosperous future. At the same time, significant equity issues are apparent in science education. This study used enrolment and academic result data, routinely collected from government schools in Victoria, Australia, to examine the impact of…

The interrelationship between mathematics and science education has frequently been emphasized, and common goals and approaches have often been adopted between disciplines. Improving students' problem-solving skills in mathematics and science education has always been given special attention; however, the problem-posing approach which plays a key…

This paper presents a research-based teaching-learning sequence (TLS) that focuses on the notion of interaction in teaching Newton's third law (N3 law) which is, as earlier studies have shown, a challenging topic for students to learn. The TLS made systematic use of a visual representation tool--an interaction diagram (ID)--highlighting…

A learning path has been developed on system dynamical graphical modelling, integrated into the Dutch lower secondary physics curriculum. As part of the developmental research for this learning path, students' understanding of the relation structures shown in the diagrams of graphical system dynamics based models has been investigated. One of our…

Although substantial gender differences in motivation, engagement and enrolment behaviour are frequently reported in the international physics education literature, the majority of studies focus on students who intend to choose physics for their future study. The present multi-occasional study examines the gender difference in motivation,…

This study investigates the predictive influences of achievement motivational variables that may sustain students' engagement in physics and influence their future enrolment plans in the subject. Unlike most studies attempting to address the decline of physics enrolments through capturing students' intention to enrol in physics before ever…

Science education research suggests that our everyday intuitions of motion and interaction of physical objects fit well with how physicists use the term "momentum". Corpus linguistics provides an easily accessible approach to study language in different domains, including everyday language. Analysis of language samples from English text…