Background: In many classrooms, science textbooks remain a significant tool, functioning in some instances as the de facto curriculum and influencing pedagogical practices. Such conventions are more noticeable in the science classrooms of developing countries, like Jamaica, because of a chronic shortage of specialist science teachers and the…

This study unearthed the prevailing attitudes and perceptions of Caribbean Higher Education Leaders towards online chemistry learning prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and puts forward a case for more formal training in e-leadership for Caribbean Higher Education Chemistry leaders. This is based on the findings of a mixed method study which showed…

Situated within the CID (Communication in the Disciplines) theoretical framework that promotes the focus of communication instruction on the oral genre standards of effectiveness, and employing a transdisciplinary approach, the current study explores science students' attitudes and motivation concerning an oral skills development (OSD)…

The global dominance of the English language has led to intense debates with the emergence of studies of English as a lingua franca. These debates can be positioned along a continuum stretching from those who see the spread of English as a force of good representing progress and those who see it as a destructive force of globalisation. Between…

The current trend in science learning leans more towards interdisciplinary (integrated) learning. Before 1989, several studies reviewed articles related to integrated science. However, research discussing articles on integrated science from 1996 until the present day is not yet available. The purpose of this study was to review 36 empirical…

The Ministry of Education, Youth, and Information (MoEYI) in Jamaica engaged in curriculum reform, producing the National Standards Curriculum (NSC) for Grades 4-9. This paper reports on a content analysis of the Grades 4-6 curriculum to determine the representation of Climate Change (CC) content, pedagogies, and activities for supporting Climate…

The gender gap in post-compulsory science education remains a key concern for educators in many countries. Over the last two decades significant effort has been placed in a number of initiatives aimed not only at raising the profile of science in schools, but also at widening female participation. Despite these initiatives, the rate of female…

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted education provision and access across the globe. One key aspect affected is academic advisement, vital to a student's university experience for enhancing success and engagement. While recognizing disparities between academic advisement and student progression at the University of Technology,…

Biology teachers consider basic Mendelian genetics to be value-free, objective science, immune to misinterpretation and misuse. It may thus come as a surprise to learn that in the early days of genetics a cornerstone of genetics education, the dihybrid cross, was employed to support claims of the racial superiority of whites over blacks and to…

Globally, science interest in diminishing among students, and as a result the science career field has begun to suffer from a lack of science career aspirations. The issue is especially relevant in developed countries, such as the United States, Japan, and South Korea, because of their policies and efforts to promote science and science education…

The focus of this response to Charity Hudley and Christine Mallinson's article, '"Its worth our time': A model of culturally and linguistically responsive professional development for K-12 STEM educators", is to underpin a pedagogy that encourages and provides opportunities for the use of non-standard language in the description and…

I spent the 1972-73 academic year on sabbatical leave at the Kingston, Jamaica, campus of the University of the West Indies. One of my duties was to give Saturday morning enrichment lectures to the students, and the best one was on suspension bridges. The demonstration lecture then went on tour to high schools in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.…

Student engagement and group work are critical to developing competencies, deeper learning, and attributes that align with 21st-century skills. In an increasingly competitive and dynamic workforce, the ability for employees to engage in collaborative workgroups is essential. A new capstone group-work assignment using Online Human Touch (OHT)…

Is empowering peace education primarily about providing individuals with skills to respond to violence they experience and capabilities to enhance their own lives? Or is inspiring social transformation to alter forms of injustice that contribute to violence an equally valid and important dimension of an empowering peace education program? This…

This article presents the experiences of Miss Felecia McLaughlin, a fourth-grade teacher from the island of Jamaica who used the model proposed by Bass et al. (2009) to assess conceptual understanding of four of the six types of simple machines while encouraging collaboration through the creation of learning teams. Students had an opportunity to…