Engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI) is seen as an important citizenship goal of SSI-based science education. In this experimental study, Dutch students (age 8 to 13) participated in lesson series in which they learned about and discussed SSI, such as issues related to the textile industry and wastewater. Attitudes toward SSI indicating…

The redesign of the first year basic chemistry course is described at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences Chemical Engineer educational course. This was done with the aim to reduce student drop-out during the first year of the educational program. On one hand, it was chosen to teach the basic chemistry course in the laboratory where…

Students in higher engineering education should develop competencies to be prepared for their future professional careers. However, in the field of food technology it is not clear what set of competencies is most relevant. This paper created a comprehensive list of competencies for food technologists by combining both domain-specific and general…

Background: Although cutting-edge chemistry research can be an interesting and motivating context for students in pre-university education, few characteristics of supportive and effective learning materials based on such contexts are available. Purpose: In this study we investigated the design, implementation, and evaluation of context-based…

Background: Quantum physics has found its way into upper secondary school physics curricula worldwide. This trend coincides with increased attention for conceptual understanding in physics education in general and quantum physics education in particular. Students' conceptual difficulties of learning quantum physics are regularly reported. Little…

Studying quantum physics in upper secondary school is now a standard practice (Stadermann et al., 2019). But given the context of science education, with low recruitment numbers in higher education and poor attitudes towards science, it remains a question whether students find the learning of quantum physics relevant. In this study, we explore how…

Fostering Environmental Citizenship (EC) through science education equips students with competences needed for action-taking on sustainability issues. Quantitative studies show Dutch student EC competences are lacking compared to international averages. This study provides a qualitative view on Dutch 11-15 year old students' EC, providing support…

STEM teacher shortage remains a serious problem in secondary education in many European countries, despite many interventions and many research studies over the last decades. The observation that past interventions and research outcomes have not significantly contributed to reduce teacher shortage implies that places to effectively intervene in…

Global developments ask for 21st-century skills. Creativity is one of those and can be defined as the production of novel ideas by connecting entities that have not been connected before and whose connection is useful in a certain domain. The growth of rhizomes is an example where unconnected entities become connected in an unpredictable way, and…

The current study is about students' engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI). We explored the use of sources of knowledge about SSI and attitudes toward SSI among a sample of 1676 Dutch 8- to 16-year-old students. First, we developed a questionnaire that measured students' use of four sources of knowledge about SSI: Social Resources (online…

Out of all the complex systems in science education curricula, cellular respiration is considered to be one of the most complex and abstract processes. Students are known to have low interest and difficulties in conceptual understanding of cellular respiration which provides a challenge for teaching and learning. In this study, we took literature…

Sustainability has become a prominent theme in society and can be considered as an integral part of scientific citizenship. This study investigates to what extent the production, use and re-use of (bio)plastics initiates students' reasoning and to identify the kind of content knowledge students put forward. The structure of students' arguments was…

Scholars report that the students' interest in STEM declines and suggest to approach them earlier. This case study with the convenient sample of seven primary school students investigates the students' view of science and scientists and examine the following research questions in the Dutch lower secondary school context: (1) What are young…

The number of women and underrepresented individuals working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields does not reflect the diversity of our societies. Even if children have an interest in STEM, they may not consider choosing a study or career in that direction if their perception is that they would not belong in science.…

Scientific literacy is a central aim of science education. The "Programme for International Student Assessment" (PISA) provides a measure of secondary students' scientific literacy and reported science instruction in 72 countries. Researchers have analyzed PISA data to identify important relationships between science instruction and…