This article proposes an evidence-based and engaging approach to teaching the mechanisms driving the movement of tectonic plates that should lead high school students towards the prevalent theories used in peer-reviewed science journals and taught in universities. The methods presented replace the inaccurate and outdated focus on mantle convection…

This article presents an instructional strategy called Premise-Reasoning-Outcome (PRO) designed to support students in the construction of scientific explanations. Informed by the philosophy of science and linguistic studies of science, the PRO strategy involves identifying three components of a scientific explanation: (i) premise--an accepted…

Engaging middle school students in science continues to be a challenge in Australian schools. One initiative that has been tried in the senior years but is a more recent development in the middle years is the context-based approach. In this ethnographic study, we researched the teaching and learning transactions that occurred in one ninth grade…

Australia would have to be one of the best countries in the world in which to live. The problem is that Australia is a very big place and, as a result, some rural and remote students do not enjoy the same opportunities as their suburban counterparts. Over the last two years the University of Newcastle's SMART program has been working with local…