Analogies are ubiquitous during instruction in science classrooms, yet research about the effectiveness of using analogies has produced mixed results. An aspect seldom studied is a model of instruction when using analogies. The few existing models for instruction with analogies have not often been examined quantitatively. The Teaching With…

In order that students can develop researching, questioning, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making skills, so that they become lifelong learning individuals, they should be improved regarding their knowledge, understanding and attitude towards natural sciences. Attitudes towards physics lessons and physical experiments of high…

Hands-on, inquiry-based, and relevant to every student's life, "Gourmet Lab" serves up a full menu of activities for science teachers of grades 6-12. This collection of 15 hands-on experiments--each of which includes a full set of both student and teacher pages--challenges students to take on the role of scientist and chef, as they boil,…

In the UK, practical work is often seen by teachers as central to both the appeal and effectiveness of science education. Practical work is frequently used in the teaching of science in English secondary schools. One of the reasons for this is that many science teachers see practical work as an essential part of what it "means" to be…

Learning science requires the understanding of concepts and formal relationships, processes that--in themselves--have been proved to be difficult for students as they seem to encounter substantial problems with most of the inquiry-learning processes in which they engage. Models in inquiry-based learning have been considered as powerful…

This study assessed whether and how self-explanation reading training, provided by iSTART (Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking), improves the effectiveness of comprehension processes. iSTART teaches students how to self-explain and which strategies will most effectively aid comprehension from moment-to-moment. We used…

The last two decades have witnessed the gradual implementation of integrated science curriculum at the junior secondary level in China. However, in most provinces of China, the implementation is not as successful as expected. Challenges were reported, yet without fine-grained investigation, with respect to science teachers' instruction on…

The speed of light is an essential topic in the teaching of physics at school and at university, either with respect to the type of experiment or of course with respect to its genuine inherent importance. In reality, the various available experiments are hardly ever performed in class for many reasons. Therefore, we offer this experiment as a…

A new procedure for performing quantitative measurements in teaching optics is presented. Application of the procedure to accurately measure the rate of change of the variable refractive index of a water-denatured alcohol mixture is described. The procedure can also be usefully exploited for measuring the constant refractive index of distilled…

In this study, relations between learning activities of teachers and changes in their beliefs were examined. Thirty-four teachers in Dutch secondary education were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their beliefs about teaching and learning on two occasions. They were also asked to report on learning activities that they undertook.…

Proven through more than a decade of rigorous research to be effective with both teachers and students, "Making Sense of SCIENCE" helps teachers gain a deep and enduring understanding of tricky science topics, think and reason scientifically, and support content literacy in science, thereby increasing student achievement. The materials…

Questionnaires were completed by 5044 12-year-old pupils in Oxfordshire state schools and initially used to identify classes where the pupils were more positive and enthusiastic about their science lessons than the majority. The teachers of these classes were identified and the views of their pupils as to what happens in their science lessons…

One of the characteristics of teaching chemistry through inquiry is that teachers need to encourage students to design their experimental procedures. Although the benefits of inquiry teaching are well documented in the literature, few teachers implement it in schools. The purpose of this study was to develop a guided-inquiry scale (GIS) to measure…

This study was conducted to determine the effect of the use of the animation on the academic achievements of the students, retention of this achievement, and the development of scientific process skills in the unit of force and motion of the science and technology course of the 6th grade basic education and to find out the student's views. The…

In the lesson presented in this article, students learn to organize their thinking and design their own inquiry experiments through careful observation of an object, situation, or event. They then conduct these experiments and report their findings in a lab report, poster, trifold board, slide, or video that follows the typical format of the…