Learning to teach within and across the settings of teacher education coursework and field experience in local schools is subject to the "two-worlds pitfall," where practices, norms, expectations, tools, and other aspects of teaching can be jarringly different. This remains an ever-present dilemma for preservice teachers, their teacher…

As the global economic crisis continues, sustaining the United States' position as a leader in research and development is a top concern of policy makers. Looking to increase the number of students pursuing degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), calls for improved mathematics and science education abound. We completed…

Decision making about socioscientific issues is an important aspect of modern science education worldwide. Among the many topics that represent socioscientific issues, issues relating to the sustainable development of our environment are one crucial topic. However, difficulties exist with respect to the assessment of teaching outcomes related to…

We describe a longitudinal study of a secondary education biology teacher at two moments in her career (1993-2002), determining the changes in her conceptions of the nature of science and its teaching and learning, and the factors that favored or hindered such changes. The changes were analyzed using cognitive maps, constructed on the basis of the…

There is evidence that alienation from science is linked to the dominant discourse practices of science classrooms (cf. Lemke, J. L. (1990). Talking Science: Language, Learning, and Values. Norwood, NJ: Ablex). Yet, in secondary science education it is particularly hard to find evidence of curriculum reform that includes explicit changes in…

Taking the Junior Secondary School Chemistry Curriculum (JSSCC) in the People's Republic of China as a case, this paper approaches the issue of the tension between elite and future citizenry orientations in science curriculum. The changes in the JSSCC over the period from 1978 to 2001 are explained from three viewpoints: sociopolitical,…

Studied the influences on the transition of a sample of Australian children from elementary school to high school. Showed that the attitudes and ambitions of parents contribute to the student's achievement in science and mathematics, and that the peer group contributed to the student's attitude toward science and mathematics. (MLH)

Showed that there were significant differences between adolescent, teacher, and parent attitudes toward marijuana, police, school, babies, teachers, and cigarettes in two seventh-grade Life Science classes. No significant differences were found between males and females on these topics. (MLH)

Discusses how the upper secondary science curriculum in Japan has been revised, and reasons for this revision. Describes the objectives and content of the new curriculum. (MLH)

Studied the effect of a six-hour training program on high school cooperating science teachers. The student teachers in this experiment rated their cooperating teachers as making more comments more often about the student teacher's planning and questioning techniques if the cooperating teacher had the training program. (MLH)

Describes many approaches to affective science teaching. Includes specific examples that correspond to Bloom's taxonomy of affective objectives. (MLH)

A survey of 45 public high schools in Florida shows an extremely low enrollment of black students in science courses. Suggests that vague career aspirations, parental and counselor roles, and perhaps a certain degree of racism account for the enrollment figures. (MLH)

Twenty-two tenth grade biology classes performed a simulated problem solving game. Half of each class completed the exercise first as individuals and then in small groups; the other half reversed this order. Results showed that group work preceded by individual work was the most effective arrangement. (MLH)

Describes an experimental seventh grade biology course designed as part of an Israeli education reform program intended to provide a more heterogeneous mixing of disadvantaged students from Asian-African backgrounds and advantaged students from European-American backgrounds. (See SE 514 546 for a related article.) (MLH)

Describes the implementation of an experimental course designed to provide compensatory opportunities for disadvantaged Israeli students in a culturally heterogeneous group of students. Performance on achievement tests and an attitude inventory revealed significant improvements after the experimental program in comprehension, higher intellectual…