How anthropomorphic reasoning functions in scientific thinking has been a controversial topic. There is evidence it is problematic as well as evidence it can play productive roles, for scientists and for students. In science education, however, the prevailing view remains that it is an impediment. For this study, we have chosen examples of what we…

Disruptions to education systems (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic) evoke a range of responses from teachers. Teachers are required to learn new skills, attend to students' social emotional needs, modify their instructional approaches, and discover innovative ways to engage their students in science, technology, and engineering courses, all while…

The rise of social media platforms and the subsequent lack of traditional gatekeeping mechanisms contribute to the multiplied spread of scientific misinformation. Particularly in these new media spaces, there is a rising need for science education in fostering a science media literacy that enables students to evaluate the credibility of scientific…

Understanding equitable practice is crucial for science education since science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and STEM learning practices remain significantly marked by structural inequalities. In this paper, building on theories of discourse and situated meaning developed by Foucault, Gee, and Sedgewick, we explore how…

Families commonly document their outings by capturing their experiences through digital photographs and videos. However, little is known about the ways in which families engage their personal mobile devices to document educational family outings and how they subsequently talk about the digital artifacts that captured their informal learning…

Children are often denied science education that engages their emotions and multiple identities. This study focused on ways in which embodied arts-based experiences offer opportunities for such engagement in pedagogical efforts associated with justice-centered science. The conceptual framework that informed the study considers the body as a site…

Maintaining a commitment to social justice teaching can be especially challenging when navigating the bureaucratic systems and ever-spiraling responsibilities of the education system. To better understand how social-justice-oriented educators navigate these tensions, this paper uses qualitative methods to investigate the social justice problems of…

The gender imbalance in computer science (CS) is one of the most challenging issues in American education. CS is the only science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field in which women's representation has steadily declined in recent decades. In this study, we explored one potential approach that could be effective in increasing…

Instructional shifts required by equitable, reform-based science instruction are challenging, especially in the elementary context. Such shifts require professional development (PD) that supports teacher internalization of new pedagogical strategies as well as changes in beliefs about how students learn. Because of this complexity, many PD…

In this study, we explore how preservice secondary science teachers articulated their agency and structural awareness within racist-nativist policy and schooling environments that limit emergent bilingual students' opportunities to learn science. Our praxis-oriented analysis led us to characterize novice teacher participants' discursive…

Engaging children in argumentation-focused discussions is essential to helping them collaboratively make sense of scientific phenomena. To support this effort, teachers must listen and be responsive to students' ideas to move the discussion forward with the goal of reaching consensus. Given the complexity of this ambitious science teaching…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) provide a vision for contemporary science education with all students, including the fast-growing population of multilingual learners in the United States K-12 context. The shifts heralded by the NGSS have resulted in significant changes to English language proficiency (ELP) or English language…

Definitions of modeling competence in science education do not yet include noncognitive factors. However, noncognitive factors are central to competence and might thus substantially improve our understanding of modeling competence. In this article, we analyze volition during preservice science teachers' engagement with a black-box modeling task…

Although adults are known to play an important role in young children's development, little work has focused on the enactive features of scaffolding in informal learning settings, and the embodied dynamics of intergenerational interaction. To address this gap, this paper undertakes a microinteractional analysis to examine intergenerational…

This study addresses the measurement of high school students' epistemic knowledge associated with scientific experimentation (EKSE) which concerns "how" scientific experimentation generates knowledge and "why" that knowledge is justified. Based on philosophical, educational standards, and literature analyses, an EKSE construct…