Role-playing games (RPGs) are considered a useful way of addressing socioscientific issues (SSIs) in the science classroom insofar as they allow learners to engage with an issue and possibly change their opinions on it. This study analyses changes in preservice primary teachers (PPTs) personal positions on nuclear energy following participation in…

The purpose of this study is to develop a lesson plan that will facilitate the instruction of socioscientific issues and the acquisition of twenty-first century skills. To this end, a lesson plan comprising four hours of instruction was devised and presented in comprehensive detail. Three distinct activities were devised and executed as part of…

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of energy resources activities on attitudes and views of prospective classroom teachers about renewable energy resources within the context of out-of school learning environments. In the study, quasi-experimental design without pre-test post-test control group was used. The research was conducted…

We engaged 47 eighth-grade students in a newly developed learning environment that integrates mobile augmented reality (AR) technology to support students' learning of nuclear energy use and radiation pollution, a topic related to a socioscientific issue (SSI) that involves complex reasoning considering scientific evidence and multiple…

The current study aims to investigate students' representations of the atomic structure in a number of student cohorts with specific characteristics concerning age, grade, class curriculum and some individual differences, such as formal reasoning and field dependence/independence. Two specific task contexts, which were designed in accordance with…

This research develops a Web-based argumentation system named the Web-based Interactive Argumentation System (WIAS). WIAS can provide teachers with the scaffolding for argumentation instruction. Students can propose their statements, collect supporting evidence and share and discuss with peers online. This research adopts a quasi-experimental…

Nuclear science has uses and applications that are relevant and crucial for world peace and sustainable development, so knowledge of its basic concepts and topics should constitute an integral part of civic scientific literacy. We have used two newspaper articles that deal with uses of nuclear science that are directly relevant to life, society,…

Although the term "radiation" has a fixed place in everyday life as well as in the media, there is very little empirical research on students' conceptions about this topic. In our study we wanted to find out what students associate with this term. In 2009, we asked 509 students (between grade 4 and grade 6) from seven different schools…

The author has previously argued against "early closure"--the tendency to close down children's curiosity through an over-zealous approach to issues-based education. Indoctrination might be a result but "burn-out," a potentially permanent attitude change that sets in before puberty, is more likely. This article is based on the…

While observation is critical to science, sometimes things cannot be observed directly. Sometimes things happened long ago (in paleontology, for example) or are too small to observe (like atoms). Many students believe that science progresses only through direct observation. Students may also believe that giant microscopes provide insight into…