This paper presents a literature review of science teaching approaches that seek to support equity in science classrooms, focusing on marginalization based on (i) race/ethnicity, (ii) social class/socioeconomic background, and (iii) religion. Considered were approaches that science teachers can use in science classes in secondary schools. They…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) engage students in the epistemic, or knowledge building, components of science through three-dimensional learning. Each scientific domain has its own epistemic aspects that result from different social groups going about science in different ways to conceptualize different bodies of knowledge; education…

The current wave of science education reforms emphasizes more equitable opportunities for students as they learn disciplinary core ideas and apply crosscutting concepts by engaging in the practices of scientists. Formative assessment--the assessment teachers and students conduct while learning is in progress--also needs to shift to support this…

The concept of identity has been used to interrogate a wide range of topics about children's learning in the content areas, including learning in literacy, math, and science. Despite this, there is a paucity of attention to how the construct of identities is conceptualized across content areas. This systematic integrative review aims to develop an…

Multiple reviews point out that immersive virtual reality (IVR) educational studies often lack the consideration of learning theories in research design and IVR application development to promote students' learning. In response to the lack of theoretical foundations in educational research of IVR applications, an increased number of scholarly…

Although there is ample literature that explores what SoTL is and offers guidelines on how to do SoTL, we have not paid enough attention to the fundamental assumptions that underpin systematic scholarly inquiry itself, regardless of the context or the object of study. Instead, we seem to have a narrative that relates SoTL to the disciplines and/or…

Academic integrity establishes a code of ethics that transfers over into the job force and is a critical characteristic in scientists in the twenty-first century. A student's perception of cheating is influenced by both internal and external factors that develop and change through time. For students, the COVID-19 pandemic shrank their academic and…

Our technological, information-rich society thrives because of scientific thinking. However, a comprehensive theory of the development of scientific thinking remains elusive. Building on previous theoretical and empirical work in conceptual change, the role of credibility and plausibility in evaluating scientific evidence and claims, science…

This commentary proposes the metaphor of "languaging-as-practice" in science education as an alternative to "language-as-tool" metaphors. Describing language as a tool implicitly positions language as static and unchanging and assumes that named languages are distinct and bounded entities. In contrast, describing languaging as…

In this study, we administered and evaluated circular motion concept question items with a view to developing an inventory suitable for the Ugandan context. Before administering the circular concept items, six physics experts and ten undergraduate physics students carried out the face and content validation. One hundred eighteen undergraduate…

Discourse about public perception of science is often positioned as a dichotomy between trust in scientific evidence and scientists as experts, versus critiques of the limitations of scientific knowledge and a mistrust in scientists as biased professionals and political agents. However, this dichotomy becomes something of a false argument, as our…

Change theory has increasingly become an area of scholarship in STEM education. While this area has traditionally been a topic for organizational psychology, business management, communication studies, and higher education, STEM education researchers are increasingly aware of the need to use formal theories to guide change efforts and research.…

The study outlines the early-stage development of a free-response General Relativity Concept Inventory (GRCI), an educational instrument designed to test for conceptual understanding of General Relativity. Data were collected for the study by having 26 participants from General Relativity courses work through the questions on the GRCI. Interviews…

This study qualitatively explored the process of student environmental identity development (sEID) within the highly social and structured context of elementary school science. Social practice theory was used as the lens to distinguish the dimensions of sEID that were visible during a curriculum-based, in-school program focused on the issue of…

Bodily engagement with the material and sociocultural world is ubiquitous in doing and learning science. However, science education researchers have often tended to emphasize the disembodied and nonmaterial aspects of science learning, thereby overlooking the crucial role of the body in meaning-making processes. While in recent years we have seen…