Studies consistently show the social impact of spreading epistemologically unfounded beliefs (or 'conspiracy beliefs'), including negative effects on public health. The present study identified correlations among epistemologically unfounded beliefs, authoritarianism, and scientific literacy in a representative sample of 303 Slovak secondary school…

Anatomy is one of the leading subjects in health science, and students need a strong anatomy background in these fields. Traditional lecturer-oriented anatomy education is based predominantly on passive learning methods. In recent years, alternative educational methods like hands-on art and 3D atlas-based education methods have become more popular…

Due to the modernization of the medical curriculum and technological advancements, anatomy education has evolved beyond cadaveric dissection alone. Plastination techniques, three-dimensional (3D) modeling, and 3D printing technologies have progressively gained importance. However, there are limited valid and reliable surveys to evaluate students'…

Belief in genetic determinism (BGD) has been associated with increased social stereotyping and prejudicial views and consequently is of significant concern to science educators. The Public Understanding and Attitudes towards Genetics and Genomics (PUGGS) instrument was developed to measure relationships among BGD, genetics knowledge, and…

Theoretical perspectives and empirical research suggest that acceptance of evolution may be contingent upon what is evolving (e.g., plants vs. humans) and the scale of change (microevolution vs. macroevolution). The Inventory of Student Evolution Acceptance (I-SEA) is the only instrument designed to measure acceptance at different evolutionary…

There is a need for robust, empirically-validated conceptualisations of teachers' attitudes towards teaching science, with a view to understand how these might explain their intention to teach science. The "Dimensions of Attitudes Toward Science" (DAS) theoretical framework suggests that cognitive, affective and perceived control…

An inquiry approach to learning can have a positive impact on students' attitudes to science and their science literacy skills; two attributes that have been in steady decline internationally. The professional development of teachers in inquiry science is one way to ensure that teachers are equipped with effective strategies to teach science,…

Critics like to call students in Generation Z (those born in 1995 onward) "coddled" and resistant to ideas that they disagree with. A series of high profile protests at universities have led to the impression that Generation Z is political intolerant of those who they disagree with. At the same time, Generation Z is a more diverse, more…

The purpose of this study was to validate a new questionnaire for assessing students' beliefs about the nature of science (BANOS). Existing instruments have limitations in terms of psychometric validity. A new questionnaire termed "BANOS" was developed to address such limitations. The BANOS is based on dimensions of the nature of science…

Employers lament that science graduates, particularly engineering students, lack professional skills, despite increasing emphasis on teaching professional skills in their curriculum. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior as an overarching framework, one explanation for skill development gaps may be students' attitude towards learning professional…

Whether students view intelligence as a fixed or malleable trait (i.e., their "mindset") has significant implications for their responses to failure and academic outcomes. Despite a long history of research on mindset and its growing popularity, recent meta-analyses suggest that mindset does a poor job of predicting academic outcomes for…

Genetic determinism can be described as the attribution of the formation of traits to genes, where genes are ascribed more causal power than what scientific consensus suggests. Belief in genetic determinism is an educational problem because it contradicts scientific knowledge, and is a societal problem because it has the potential to foster…

Previous studies on students' conceptions of learning science (COLS) have focused primarily on formal environments. In these studies, students' COLS were positively associated with their approaches to and outcomes for science learning. However, little research has been conducted to explore students' conceptions of learning science in informal…

In this research, the effect of experimental applications by using robotics technology in Science and Technology course the "Force and Motion" unit on the level of scientific creativity and scientific attitude of students was investigated. This research was designed according to the quasi-experimental method pre-test post-test design…

Purpose: This paper aims to analyse the data regarding the national identification and sense of belonging of secondary school students with and without immigration backgrounds collected through the International Civic and Citizenship Study 2016. It also assesses whether the research instruments used are suitable for the German context. Method:…