In "Belonging and Identity in STEM Higher Education," leading scholars, teachers, practitioners and students explore belonging and identity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, and how this is impacted by disciplinary changes and the post-pandemic higher education context. In STEM fields, positivist…

This edited volume presents innovative current research in the field of Science Education. The chapter's deal with a wide variety of topics and research approaches, conducted in a range of contexts and settings. Together they make a strong contribution to knowledge on science teaching and learning. The book consists of selected presentations from…

Educational strategies have evolved over the years, due to research breakthroughs and the application of technology. By using the latest learning innovations, curriculum and instructional design can be enhanced and strengthened. The "Handbook of Research on Driving STEM Learning with Educational Technologies" is an authoritative…

Despite several decades of research into the teaching and learning of Science/Chemistry, at both secondary and tertiary level, it has had relatively little impact on practice. In many countries interest in studying Science at school and university is falling, and there is concern over falling numbers and falling standards. There is a changing…

Researchers and practitioners alike express concerns about the conceptual difficulties associated with the concepts of momentum and kinetic energy currently taught in school physics. This article presents an in-depth analysis of the treatment given to them in 44 published textbooks written for UK secondary school certificate courses. This is set…

The commodification of research in the social sciences sees a focus on "inputs" rather than "outputs" and an emphasis on the "science" rather than the "social". The empirical prevails at the expense of the critical, with lessening interest in, and support for, knowledge designed to interrogate orthodoxy.…

One issue of interest to practitioners and researchers in science centres concerns what meanings visitors are making from their interactions with exhibits and how they make sense of these experiences. The research reported in this study is an exploratory attempt, therefore, to investigate this process by using video clips and still photographs of…

This study explored and documented Taiwanese students' alternative conceptions of animal classification. We examined the understanding of the "animal", "vertebrate" and "invertebrate", "fish", "amphibian", "reptile", "bird", and "mammal" concepts among elementary,…

Purpose: The paper comprises an extended discussion of the possibilities that Web 2.0 applications offer to doctoral researchers, and where such applications fit in the early twenty-first century in the research environment. It explores the main issues associated with their use by doctoral researchers, and how these factors have influenced the…

Investigates the effects of using scientific apparatus versus household objects on the accuracy of primary school children in a simple titration exercise. Indicates no significant difference between the accuracy obtained using the two types of apparatus at the beginning, but improved performance for children using scientific apparatus by the end.…

This article describes a four-year project undertaken to develop a set of performance tasks that could be used for assessing hands-on science in Irish primary schools. It begins by considering some of the literature on performance assessment and concludes with a discussion on the potential of the tasks to support teaching and learning in science.…

The theme of this conference was intended to reflect the changes in the economic and educational environment and the changing perceptions of science educators in the United States and in the United Kingdom since the first such seminar which occurred in 1982. The document includes the text of the keynote address by F. James Rutherford entitled…

The relationship between process and content in children's science learning is discussed. The idea that both aspects are important in learning, especially during practical investigations, and that both should be emphasized are presented. (KR)

The number of doctorates being awarded around the world has almost doubled over the last ten years, propelling it from a small elite enterprise into a large and ever growing international market. Within the context of increasing numbers of doctoral students this book examines the new doctorate environment and the challenges it is starting to face.…

The effectiveness and use of the Science and Technology in Society (SATIS) materials in United Kingdom schools are summarized. Questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observations were used to collect data from both students and teachers. (KR)