This study is motivated by the issues found in observations at school, where the daily teaching activities carried out by teachers show that: teaching and learning activities are classical, the teacher only stands or sits in front of the class, the direct relationship between the teacher and students is rare, and students tend to behave passively,…

This paper reports on an interview study of 18 Grade 10-12 students' model-based reasoning of a chemical reaction: the reaction of magnesium and oxygen at the submicro level. It has been proposed that chemical reactions can be conceptualised using two models: (i) the "particle model," in which a reaction is regarded as the simple…

Generalization has been a major focus of curriculum standards and research efforts in mathematics education. While researchers have documented many productive contexts for generalizing and the generalizations students make, less attention has been given to the processes of generalizing. Moreover, there has been less work done with high school…

Research on the design of learning environments for K-12 science education has been informed by two bodies of literature: inquiry-based science and Constructionism. Inquiry-based science has emphasized engagement in activities that reflect authentic scientific practices. Constructionism has focused on designing intuitively accessible authoring…

This paper proposes a model-based notion of "submicro representations of chemical reactions". Based on three structural models of matter (the simple particle model, the atomic model and the free electron model of metals), we suggest there are two major models of reaction in school chemistry curricula: (a) reactions that are simple…

Background and purpose: The research literature in physical education (PE) is placing a growing focus on the need for research that can illuminate not only the challenges PE faces but also how we can develop PE to meet the needs of all students. The activist approach aims to study future possibilities in PE, and the goal is for all young people…

The study critically explored the case of Pangasinan learners' physics learning process using culture and language-influenced curriculum materials in physics (CLI-CMP). Case research using cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) designed the study to provide unique ideas on how socio-cultural theory, a recent field of study of Physics Education…

In this paper we explore the role of outdoor residential experiences on the sense of efficacy and examination attainment of a group of under achieving students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. The article reports on a three year project which focuses on two groups of Year 9 (age 14) to Year 11 (age 16) students. The results reported here…

We examined how the development of familism values from 5th to 10th grade relates to 12th-grade prosocial tendencies (after controlling for 10th-grade prosocial tendencies) using a stratified random sample of 749 Mexican American adolescents (M = 10.42 years of age at 5th grade; 48.9% girls) from 35 culturally and economically diverse…

Research into the effectiveness of video as a tool to educate students about environmental issues and cause a change in their attitudes toward them in a classroom setting is limited. We sought to add to this sparse body of research. We created three videos that showcased a species in a different stage of protection under the Endangered Species…

We investigate 10th-grade Latinx and African American high school students' engagement in a reform-oriented curriculum designed to foster their critical social analysis of urban schooling. Students' designs of "ideal schools" based on their studies of their neighborhoods largely reproduced existing inequitable structures and practices of…

This article describes revisions to four of the eight constructs of the Duncan molecular genetics learning progression [Duncan, Rogat, & Yarden, (2009)]. As learning progressions remain hypothetical models until validated by multiple rounds of empirical studies, these revisions are an important step toward validating the progression. Our…

Despite growing consensus regarding the value of inquiry-based teaching and learning, the implementation of such a pedagogical practice continues to be a challenge for many South African teachers, especially at rural schools. The research reported in this article concerns the interaction between Grade 10 Physical Sciences teachers' beliefs about…

This paper reports on one part of a large study which attempted to identify the linguistic and hierarchical characteristics of van Hiele theory amongst grade 10 learners. The sample consisted of a total of 359 participants from five purposively selected schools from Mthatha District in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The performance of…

This paper is about memory, the elusive process of remembering and of an encounter between a researcher and a participant who after five years reunited to remember. The object under study is a high school social justice curriculum with a central focus on the development of social action projects. Grounded in Pitt and Britzman's work on difficult…