Textbooks are one of the primary sources for students to obtain knowledge, so they should present accurate knowledge through textual and visual representations. The goal of the current study is to examine the representations in middle school science textbooks based on the diagram coding scheme to find out a general picture of how representations…

Inquiry-based learning can be an effective approach when students are provided with sufficient guidance. However, there is an ongoing debate among practitioners about the nature, type, and level of such guidance. This study investigated the effects on middle school students' (N = 116) conceptual knowledge and inquiry skills acquisition of…

Simulations, which is a type of educational technology has started to be used widely in classes. Contradictive results show that there is no certain conclusion about the effects of them on students' domain knowledge, inquiry skills and attitudes towards science. The goal of the study is to compare the impacts of simulation-based and textbook-based…

The science learning environment is an important factor in students' attitudes toward their science experiences in school, as well as toward science courses. This study compares how learning in different laboratory environments (hands-on or virtual) influences these attitudes for middle school (7th grade) students. Participants were 143…