Genetics is a core topic in the biology curriculum of many countries. Learning genetics is difficult for multiple reasons, including the need to reason about complex mechanisms--and to link mechanisms--that occur at different time and space scales. Previous research in genetics education explores students' understandings of inheritance patterns or…

The periodic table is recognized as one of the most powerful tools in science. While it is included in virtually all high school and undergraduate general chemistry curricula, it remains a mystery to many chemistry students who find it impossible to decode. Students are often able to predict periodic trends concerning atomic radius, ionization…

This study investigated the effect of the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach on grade 9 students' understanding of chemical change and mixture concepts. Four intact classes taught by two chemistry teachers from a Turkish public high school were selected for the study; one class was assigned as the treatment group, and the other class was…

Amid calls for more practice-based teacher education, this article presents a concrete illustration of a practice-based bridging strategy for preparing high school biology teachers to enact open-inquiry labs. Open-inquiry labs were considered a core practice frame that served as a context for identifying core practices and for giving coherence to…

Writing-to-Learn in High-School Chemistry: The Effects of Using the Science Writing Heuristic to Increase Scientific Literacy The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) as an instructional tool to improve academic achievement and writing in the context of scientific literacy. This…

Darwinian evolution is a robustly supported scientific theory. Yet creationists continue to challenge its teaching in American public schools. Biology teachers in all 50 states are responsible for teaching science content standards that include evolution. As products of their backgrounds and affiliations teachers bring personal attitudes and…

This study aims to add to the growing research related to the implementation of non-traditional writing tasks in classrooms to encourage science literacy. A secondary reanalysis methodology was employed to review student interviews collected as a part of several individual studies during a ten year research program. This method established an…

These proceedings contain the papers of the 7th International Conference on Educational Technologies 2020 (ICEduTech 2020), which has been organised by the International Association for Development of the Information Society and co-organised by the University of São Paulo ("Universidade de São Paulo"), Brazil, from 5 to 7 February 2020.…

This paper argues that the emphasis on orchestration as a metaphor for teaching in technology-enhanced learning (TEL) environments, featured in recent academic discussions, is an opportunity to broaden the scope of the inquiry into educational technology. Drawing on sociological literature and research that investigated the systemic factors that…

Many teacher education programs include different forms of teachers doing research. Be it in the form of action research or general inquiries about their practice, it has been argued that when teachers do research on their own practice, they are able to take a more reflective stance towards their work which is necessary to bring about educational…

This paper discusses student attitudes and beliefs on using the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) in an advanced placement (AP) chemistry classroom. During the 2007 school year, the SWH was used in a class of 24 AP chemistry students. Using a Likert-type survey, student attitudes and beliefs on the process were determined. Methods for the study are…

Formal mathematical methods remain, for most high school students, mysterious, artificial and not a part of their regular intuitive thinking. The authors develop some themes that could lead to a radically new approach. According to this thesis, the teaching of programming languages as a regular part of academic progress can contribute effectively…

The aim of this paper is to consider some issues in the historical international development of science education making comparisons between the educational systems of Britain and the United States of America. The author's particular interest relates to the role of the textbook in science education, so this is area on which this study will…

In the history of mankind three important philosophical and scientific revolutions have taken place. The first of these revolutions was the mathematical-axiomatic revolution in ancient Greece, when the philosophers from Thales of Miletus to Archimedes built up the abstract deductive method used in pure mathematics. The second took place in the…

Many researchers and teacher educators propose that reflection is an important way teachers can think about changing their views and practices. The hierarchical constructs used to describe reflection, however, are often interpreted in ways that promote reflection as a "tool" teachers use to elevate their views and practices toward ideal "end…